Rare Javan Green Magpie At Chester Zoo In Extinction Prevention Attempt

The Javan Green magpie is a Critically Endangered bird, bird endemic to West Java and little is known on the biology of this species in the wild, made all the more difficult due to the increasing difficulty in finding wild individuals.

Conservationists at the zoo watched with pleasure as the birds were released from their quarantine into their spacious aviaries. These birds, that had lived in tiny cages in Indonesia until they were rescued, had never known what it is like to fly around freely. In the video below, you can see the birds chirping at each other and gobbling up live locusts that the zookeepers had placed throughout the aviary for them.