What I understood about the biogeography of this place

This past weekend, Kai and I have shortly indulged in ornithology. This happened on the Ashtari terrace which offers a great panoramic view of Kuta valley, and a good view of the close-range vegetation. (We actually strayed outside to see monkeys which you can hear in the near-by banana trees but saw none. So we turned our attention to the birds.)

Here is a list of birds we saw: Blaubruecher (the males are only blue during mating season), Kronklammflecker, Brinkgenustler, and Fallfledderer. We also heard the chirrup and twitter of the Tonmongrel and, more distantly, the Samthefler. These are actually bird names we came up with!

Indonesia is a bird-watcher’s paradise. Some bird species here are indigenous to island groups and have evolved entirely on their own. The Sunda shelf used to link the Indonesian archipelago islands to one another and to Asia during the ice ages. The Wallacea islands that Lombok is a part of, however, lie behind the Wallacea line, east of Bali. Bali shares more of its mammal fauna with East Asia than with Lombok, only some 35 km across the Wallacea line. Because Bali and Lombok were probably never connected during the ice ages - the strait here is too deep - the strait has been impassable for many species from the west, including land birds.

It has also been impenetrable for land birds from the east (Australia-New Guinea) due to Lydekker’s line. (I hope my biogeography is correct here, call me out if not.)

There are so few birds left on Lombok. Alas, some people have made it a sport to shoot down the few ones left. So rarely one sees or hears birds in the sky, which I took a while to realize. But now that I noticed it makes me sad.