Risk of Secondary Extinction in the Asian Songbird Trade, as Exemplified by the Selling of Crested Jayshrikes as Master Birds

Abstract

The Asian Songbird Crisis—the recognition that trade is the major threat to the conservation of Asian songbirds—has hitherto largely focused on species valued for their singing abilities and those that enter into songbird competitions. To increase the repertoire and variability in the songs of these competition species, competitors use so-called master birds. These are caged near competition birds to train them through vocal mimicry. Here, we focus on one such master bird, the crested jayshrike Platylophus galericulatus. Recognizing the negative effect trade has had on wild populations, the Indonesian government added this species to its list of protected species in 2018. We used data from 21 bird markets surveyed between 2011–2018 (119 surveys) and 2018–2025 (105 surveys) to assess whether this legal protection was effective. We recorded crested jayshrikes openly offered for sale, with most surveys documenting one or two individuals. We found a strong contrast between the brown crested jayshrike P. g. coronatus from Borneo and Sumatra and the Javan crested jayshrike P. g. galericulatus. The former was favored because of its superior singing abilities and more varied, piercing song. Almost three-quarters of individuals traded were brown crested jayshrikes, and they commanded significantly higher prices. Overall, remarkably little change was detected over the 15-year period, and legal protection appears to have had limited effect. We found no significant change in the number of markets offering the species (16 vs. 15), in market-level abundance trends (10 decreases, 5 no change, 6 increases), in temporal patterns, or in prices (brown: US$103 vs. US$110; Javan: US$57 vs. US$41 at the start and end of the study, respectively). The mean abundance decline slightly (1.6 vs. 1.3 birds per survey). Although crested jayshrikes themselves do not enter singing competitions, they are an integral part of the competitive songbird industry as master birds, with thousands caught illegally every year. As a result, they face a risk of extinction driven indirectly by the demand for increasingly complex songs in competing species. These secondary extinctions highlight the need to rethink how best to manage, and where appropriate curb, trade in wild songbirds across Asia.