Topeka Zoo helps critically endangered Bali Myna bird species survive

A Bali Myna, one of the world’s rarest — and some say most wonderful — birds was hatched this thirty day period at the Topeka Zoo.

The Asian songbird was born July 2 at the Topeka Zoo, the place it life in the Tropical Rainforest.

The birth boosts that facility’s number of users of the critically endangered species to 3, explained Joe Maloney, who functions at the zoo with invertebrates and in the rainforest.

Bali mynas are among the most vocal birds in that rainforest, the place their unique plumage and phone calls make them easily recognizable, he said.

‘Breeding in zoos may possibly be its only hope for survival’

The critically endangered Bali myna is “a single of the most beautiful birds in the environment, with its hanging snow white feathers, lacy head crest and blue eye patch,” says the web-site of the Cincinnati Zoo.

The populace of Bali Mynas in the wild has been diminished by habitat loss and unlawful trapping carried out to purchase them to be caged songbirds, claimed Taylor Miller, the Topeka Zoo’s communications coordinator.

“Only a handful of mynas, hugely coveted by collectors, continue being in the wild,” states the Cincinnati Zoo website. “Breeding in zoos may be its only hope for survival.”

Mynas try to eat fruit, seeds, invertebrates

Bali mynas can develop up to 10 inches long, and live only in Bali, a province of Indonesia, according to the Cincinnati Zoo web site.

Their diet consists of fruit, seeds and invertebrates, it claims.

Ladies of the species are likely to lay one to three eggs but typically only one particular will survive, Miller claimed.

“They are cavity nesters, so the chick is at present found in a distinctive box developed by keepers,” she reported.