BirdingASIA 28 (2017)
SITES TO WATCH
Rapid bird surveys at Tempe Lake and Pallime
Estuary, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
HANOM BASHARI & OLIVIER LANGRAND
Introduction
Tempe Lake
Tempe Lake (Danau Tempe), located in the Wajo
and Sidenreng Rappang district, South Sulawesi
province, Indonesia, is one of two large lakes
on the Sulawesi mainland severely affected by
sedimentation, the other being Limboto Lake,
Gorontalo province, northern Sulawesi (Whitten et
al. 1987). Tempe Lake is identified as one of the 17
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (Indonesia
IBA 185) on the Sulawesi mainland, based on
the presence of Endangered Milky Stork Mycteria
cinerea and Critically Endangered Yellow-crested
Cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea, together with a large
congregation of Purple Heron Ardea purpurea
(BirdLife International 2004,2017a). It is also part of
the Wallacea Ecosystem Profile (reference IDN130),
in which it is included as a 32,024 ha terrestrial Key
Biodiversity Area (KBA), a selection again justified
by the presence of globally threatened Milky Stork
and by the presence of other taxa including the
Sulawesi Tarsier Tarsius fuscus and freshwater fish
including the Celebes Medaka Oryzias celebensis
and Telmatherina ladigesi (Critical Ecosystem
Partnership Fund 2014).
Tempe Lake (4.140°S 119.969°E) lies at an
altitude of 10 m, covers an area of about 13,630 ha
and has a shoreline of about 91 km. To the north-
west the lake is linked by a channel to the swamps
and waterways of Sidenreng Lake. Most of the
surface of Tempe Lake is still open water, but some
parts are being encroached by water hyacinth
Eichhornia crassipes, the well-known invasive
Plate 1. Tempe Lake landscape, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
HANOM BASHARI
107
plant species which originated in South America.
The movement of the water hyacinth is controlled
by bamboo poles (Plate 1) which are also used as
markers for the delimitation of fishing territories.
Around the lake the local communities engage
in agricultural activities concentrated on annual
crops such as rice, corn and beans. There are also
fallow areas overgrown with bushes and Imperata
cylindrica grass.
Walanae River and Pallime Estuary
The Walanae River flows south-east out of Tempe
Lake and empties into the Gulf of Bone through
the area known as Pallime (4.345°S 120.387°E),
Bone district, on the east coast of South Sulawesi
province, and where the largest concentration of
fishponds in Sulawesi is to be found near Pallime
village. The muddy Pallime estuarine area extends
for more than 50 km around the mouth of the
Walanae River (Figure 1). About 5 km upstream
from the estuary, community-owned fishponds
are found next to small settlements; closer to the
estuary, fishponds are interspersed with patches of
mangrove (Plate 2). In some places along the river
close to the estuary, there are mudflats which are
feeding places for egrets and herons at low tide;
mudflats in the Pallime Estuary extend about 1 km
offshore. In general, mangroves form a barrier
between the foreshore and the fishponds.
Pallime is also included as a terrestrial KBA
(reference IDN131) in the Wallacea Ecosystem
Profile and is listed as a 5,434 ha area of fishponds
and mudflats (Critical Ecosystem Partnership
 108 Rapid bird surveys at Tempe Lake and Pallime Estuary, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
119º30’ E 120º00’ E 120º30’ E
4º00’ S
4º30’ S
Figure 1. Map of Tempe Lake and Pallime Estuary, South
Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Fund 2014); again the selection is justified by the
presence of Milky Stork (BirdLife International
2001).
Access
Access is best made via Sengkang, the capital of
Wajo district; the city lies just to the east of Tempe
Lake (Figure 1), about 200 km from Makassar, South
Sulawesi province, from where it can be reached by
car in four hours. From Sengkang, Tempe Lake may
be accessed by taking a small boat from the little
harbour of Tempat Pelelangan Ikan Empat Lima (TPI
45). From this point Tempe Lake is just 5 km, which
can be covered in around 20 minutes. Boats can
go to any location on the lake on request. Pallime
Estuary can be reached from Sengkang by car—it is
a 90 minute drive to Cenrana Harbour, Bone district.
From the harbour it takes approximately 30 minutes
in a small boat to reach Pallime Estuary (8 km)
and the boat can be stopped on request; individual
fishponds can only be reached on foot.
Methodology
Observations were carried out between 06h00 and
10h00 on 8 and 11 March 2016 at Tempe Lake and
on 10 March 2016 in the Pallime area. Observations
Plate 2. Pallime fishpond and a small patch of mangrove, South Sulawesi.
HANOM BASHARI
were made at both locations from a slowly moving
boat, and also from a stationary boat and moored
houseboat on Tempe Lake and by walking along
the mud dykes separating the fishponds at Pallime.
We recorded the number of individuals of every
avian species seen and the habitat type(s) in which
they were encountered. All observations were
made simultaneously by both authors.
Results
We recorded 47 bird species during the two days
at Tempe Lake and 47 on one day in Pallime
(Appendix 1). At Pallime Estuary we observed
several globally threatened species, including
two species new for the Pallime area: Chinese
Egret Egretta eulophotes and Far Eastern Curlew
Numenius madagascariensis. Neither of the IBA and
KBA trigger species for Tempe Lake and Pallime—
Milky Stork and Yellow-crested Cockatoo—were
found during our surveys. Purple Heron was
observed, but only in small numbers, unlike the
experience during the Asian Waterbird Census in
1990, when significant numbers were recorded on
Tempe Lake (BirdLife International 2004, Wei et
al. 2009). The results of our recent surveys do not
therefore support the area’s status as an IBA on the
basis of the presence and/or significant numbers
of those three species.
Selected species accounts
Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes VU
This species breeds on the coasts of Far East
Russia, the Korean Peninsula and north-east and
east China and is found as a non-breeding species
south to Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia
(Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi) and
the Philippines (Coates & Bishop 1997, BirdLife
International 2017b, Martínez-Vilalta et al. 2017).
We saw a single bird at Pallime Estuary (Plate
3) on the mudflats and muddy banks of the river
exposed at low tide; it was seen near to but not
associating with several Little Egrets E. garzetta,
 BirdingASIA 28 (2017) 109
HANOM BASHARI

Plate 3 . Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes, Pallime Estuary,

10 March 2016.

foraging on muddy areas and occasionally flying

to the next patch of mud. Up to this time, only
four records of Chinese Egret had been reported
from Wallacea, all of them also from the Sulawesi
sub-region: Mantehage Island, North Sulawesi;
Kema, North Sulawesi; Kwandang, Gorontalo; and
Bulurokeng district, Makassar, South Sulawesi
(BirdLife International 2001).

HANOM BASHARI
Purple Heron Ardea purpurea
In the context of the the Asian Waterbird Census
1987–2007, a total of 1,522 Purple Herons was Plate 4 . Purple Heron Ardea purpurea, Pallime mangroves,
recorded at Tempe Lake in 1990—more than 1% 10 March 2016.
of the global population of the species (Wei et al.
2009). As a result, it was part of the trigger for IBA occasionally catching prey from the surface of the
status for this area (BirdLife International 2004). water. Many were also seen perched on the tops
However, during our surveys we observed only of bamboo poles used by fishermen to control the
12 birds at Tempe Lake on 9 March 2016 and 20 at movement of the invasive water hyacinth.
Pallime on 10 March 2016 (Plate 4).
Discussion
Far Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis EN Tempe Lake
This species breeds from the east coast of Russia Local communities complain about the invasive
to Mongolia and migrates through South-East Asia, water hyacinth, which they believe is causing
including Wallacea, to winter mainly in Australia the sedimentation of the lake. The sedimentation
(Coates & Bishop 1997, BirdLife International causes annual flooding that affects the areas
2017c, van Gils et al. 2017). It has been recorded
from Sulawesi at fishponds in the Makassar area Plate 5 . Far Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis,
in October and December 2011 and at Tangkoko Pallime beach, 10 March 2016.
National Park in February 2017 (http://eBird.
org accessed 22 June 2017). It is also known on
Timor Island from Kupang bay, West Timor, and
Tasitolu lake, East Timor (BirdLife International
2001, http://eBird.org accessed 22 June 2017). We
observed one bird on the beach at Pallime on 10
March 2016; it walked quietly and slowly away
from the observers (Plate 5).
HANOM BASHARI

Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida

Whiskered Tern is a common and conspicuous
species on Tempe Lake. On 9 March 2016 we
observed a group of 300 flying around the lake,
110 Rapid bird surveys at Tempe Lake and Pallime Estuary, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
surrounding the lake. Water hyacinth proliferation
also prevents access to some areas of the lake used
by fishermen who have to spend time and money
building bamboo barriers to prevent the movement
of the huge rafts of this invasive species.
At the same time, floods and silting have led
to the emergence of new habitat favouring the
avian diversity of the lake. Even the rafts of water
hyacinth constitute a habitat where bitterns, herons
and rails are frequently observed, while passerines
such as Zitting Cisticola Cisticola juncidis and
Australasian Reed Warbler Acrocephalus australis
also make use of a variety of wetland vegetation.
Some areas around Tempe Lake have been
transformed by intensive agriculture and the avian
species diversity of the lake has increased with the
appearance of species that frequent agricultural
fields, e.g. Lesser Coucal Centropus bengalensis,
Slender-billed Crow Corvus enca, Scaly-breasted
Munia Lonchura punctulata, introduced species
such as Sooty-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus aurigaster
and ubiquitous species such as the Pale-bellied
Myna Acridotheres cinereus.
Pallime
In Pallime, small remnant patches of mangrove
are used by Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis, Purple
Heron, Rufous Night Heron Nycticorax caledonicus
and Black-crowned Night Heron N. nycticorax as
roosting and nesting sites. However, the artificial
fishponds are managed intensively, so it is not
expected that mangroves will recolonise the area
naturally and it is more likely that the area of
mangrove cover will be further reduced in the
future. The fishponds are a favoured habitat for
resident and migratory waterbirds. We did not
observe evidence of bird poaching, although we do
not rule out the possibility that this practice occurs
at Pallime. Aquaculture can be practised without
the destruction of the mangroves to the benefit of
the fishponds and the productivity of the natural
ecosystem whilst at the same time preserving
wintering, foraging and breeding sites for resident
and migratory waterbirds.
Pallime Estuary provides extensive mudflats
at low tide and it is anticipated that it should be a
prime location for gatherings of large numbers of
foraging waterbirds. Visits to Pallime Estuary at
the peak of the migration seasons in May to July
and September to December should be undertaken
to verify the conservation importance of this site.
It is possible that observations at those times
would reveal the presence of species or numbers
of birds which would support the area’s ongoing
designation as a KBA.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Burung Indonesia
and the Regional Implementation Team of the
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) in
Wallacea for their support. Thanks also go to
Andi Faisal Alwi for help with logistics and to
Bambang Tetuka for preparing the map. This paper
is dedicated to Abqori Azib Bashari.
References
BirdLife International (2001) Threatened birds of Asia: the BirdLife International Red
Data Book. Cambridge UK: BirdLife International.
BirdLife International (2004) Important bird areas in Asia: key sites for conservation
(Conservation Series 13). Cambridge UK: BirdLife International.
BirdLife International (2017a) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Danau Tempe.
Accessed at http://www.birdlife.org on 22/10/2017.
BirdLife International (2017b) Species factsheet: Egretta eulophotes. Accessed at
http://www.birdlife.org on 19/08/2016.
BirdLife International (2017c) Species factsheet: Numenius madagascariensis.
Accessed at http://www.birdlife.org on 19/08/2016.
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (2014) Ecosystem profile summary. Wallacea
biodiversity hotspot. Arlington: Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund.
Coates, B. J. & Bishop, K. D. (1997) A guide to the birds of Wallacea: Sulawesi, the
Moluccas and Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. Alderley Queensland: Dove
Publications.
van Gils, J., Wiersma, P. & Kirwan, G. M. (2017) Far Eastern Curlew Numenius
madagascariensis. HBW Alive. Accessed at http://www.hbw.com/node/53898
on 18/06/2017.
Martínez-Vilalta, A., Motis, A., de Juana, E. & Kirwan, G. M. (2017) Chinese
Egret Egretta eulophotes. HBW Alive. Accessed at http://www.hbw.com/
node/52695 accessed on 15/06/2017.
Wei D. L. Z., Bloem, A., Delany, S., Martakis, G. & Quintero, J. O. (2009) Status of
waterbirds in Asia, results of the Asian waterbird census: 1987-2007. Petaling
Jaya Malaysia: Wetlands International.
Whitten, A. J., Mustafa, M. & Henderson, G. S. (1987) The ecology of Sulawesi.
Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.
Hanom BASHARI
E-PASS Bogani Nani Wartabone FCU
Jalan AKD Mongkonai Barat, Kotamobagu 95716
North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Email: han_bashari@yahoo.com
Olivier LANGRAND
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)
Crystal Drive – Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
Email: olangrand@cepf.net
BirdingASIA 28 (2017) 111

Appendix 1
Species seen at Tempe Lake (8 & 11 March 2016) and Pallime (10 March 2016)
Tempe Tempe
Lake Pallime Lake Pallime
Wandering Whistling Duck Common Redshank Tringa totanus x
x
Dendrocygna arcuata Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis x
Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa x Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia x
Sunda Teal Anas gibberifrons NT x x Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola x
Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus x Grey-tailed Tattler Tringa brevipes NT x
Rufous Night Heron Common Gull-billed Tern
x x x
Nycticorax caledonicus Gelochelidon nilotica
Black-crowned Night Heron Little Tern Sternula albifrons x
x x
Nycticorax nycticorax Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida x x
Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis x x Feral Pigeon Columba (domestica) livia x
Little Egret Egretta garzetta x x Eastern Spotted Dove Spilopelia chinensis x x
Pacific Reef Egret Egretta sacra x Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans x
Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes VU x Little Bronze Cuckoo Chalcites minutillus x x
Yellow Bittern Ixobrychus sinensis x Lesser Coucal Centropus bengalensis x
Cinnamon Bittern Glossy Swiftlet Collocalia esculenta x x
x
Ixobrychus cinnamomeus
Uniform Swiftlet Aerodramus vanikorensis x x
Black Bittern Ixobrychus flavicollis x
House Swift Apus nipalensis x
Striated Heron Butorides striata x x
Collared Kingfisher Todiramphus chloris x x
Javan Pond Heron Ardeola speciosa x x
Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis x
Great-billed Heron Ardea sumatrana x
Blue-tailed Bee-eater Merops philippinus x x
Purple Heron Ardea purpurea x x
Golden-bellied Gerygone
Great White Egret Ardea alba x x x
Gerygone sulphurea
Little Pied Cormorant White-breasted Woodswallow
x x x
Microcarbo melanoleucos Artamus leucoryn
Little Black Cormorant White-shouldered Triller Lalage sueurii x
x
Phalacrocorax sulcirostris
Slender-billed Crow Corvus enca x
Spotted Kestrel Falco moluccensis x
Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica x x
Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus x
Zitting Cisticola Cisticola juncidis x
Black Kite Milvus migrans x x
Sooty-headed Bulbul
Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus x x x
Pycnonotus aurigaster
Barred Rail Hypotaenidia torquata x Australasian Reed Warbler
Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia philippensis x x x
Acrocephalus australis
White-breasted Waterhen Lemon-bellied White-eye Zosterops chloris x
x
Amaurornis phoenicurus Pale-bellied Myna Acridotheres cinereus x
Purple Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio x Pied Bushchat Saxicola caprata x
Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus x Grey-sided Flowerpecker Dicaeum
Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva x x
celebicum
Javan Plover Charadrius javanicus NT x Black Sunbird Leptocoma aspasia x
Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus x Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus x
Far Eastern Curlew Scaly-breasted Munia Lonchura punctulata x
x
Numenius madagascariensis EN Black-headed Munia Lonchura malacca x x
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata x Pale-headed Munia Lonchura pallida x
Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos x x Total 47 47