Turns out, even a critically endangered, extremely particular bird can be a survivor. New surveys from northern Myanmar’s Kachin state confirm that the white-bellied heron – a bird so rare experts think only about 50 mature individuals exist globally – is still, against some serious odds, making a go of it.
These are not your average backyard birds. Ardea insignis, as they're known in fancier circles, are the definition of high-maintenance. They demand pristine, fast-flowing rivers and undisturbed forests in places like Bhutan, northeastern India, and northern Myanmar. The moment a human so much as looks at their river the wrong way, they pack up their bags. Which, if you think about it, makes their continued existence in a region fraught with instability even more remarkable.
Their numbers have been plummeting thanks to the usual suspects: hydropower dams messing with their rivers, mining, pollution, fishing practices that don't care about a heron's personal space, and, naturally, climate change. The IUCN Red List, which keeps tabs on these things, now estimates there are somewhere between 50 and 249 adults left worldwide. Let that satisfyingly vague number sink in.
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Start Your News DetoxLocal Heroes Step Up
Enter the Northern Wildlife Rangers (NWR), a local group in Kachin state who decided these shy birds were worth fighting for. Between 2022 and 2023, amidst what can only be described as a challenging political climate, these rangers managed to spot three to five individual white-bellied herons across 25 separate sightings. Proof positive that the herons are still there, quietly judging the world from their pristine riverbanks.
This crucial work was entirely carried out by local community members, funded by a small grants program from the WWF. Because when government support dwindles and international NGOs pull back – as they have in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup – it's often the local heroes who step into the breach. And sometimes, those local heroes are the only reason a ridiculously shy heron gets to live another day. Which, for the herons, is probably a huge relief.
