NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Two young conservation workers rattle up on a motorbike and dismount at the edge of a coconut grove. Picking through husks, fallen fronds and stray plastic bottles, they scan the canopy, waiting in stillness. For nearly 20 minutes, nothing stirs. Then, a flash of white. A Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) pokes […]

  • An Indonesian songbird once nearly extinct in the wild, the Bali starling, is making a comeback through community-led conservation on Nusa Penida and beyond.

  • Strict law enforcement and captive breeding failed to reverse the bird’s decline; poaching and habitat loss continued despite decades of formal protections.

  • In the early 2000s, conservationists changed tactics, working with communities on Nusa Penida to establish the island as a sanctuary for Bali starlings.

  • Villages embraced traditional awig-awig regulations to protect the starling, creating powerful cultural, social and financial deterrents to poaching.