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Listening to them talk, one could almost mistake bird-watchers as paparazzi comparing notes on their latest assignment.

“There was a racket-tailed treepie there this morning,” one chirps enthusiastically. “Blast, I didn’t see that one,” moans another, sounding just like a dejected photographer who missed a chance to capture the hottest star.

Every month, a group of birdwatchers visit the Muara Angke Wildlife Reserve on Jakarta’s northwestern outskirts, armed with binoculars and field guides such as “Birds of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Kalimantan” by John McKinnon, Karen Phillips and Bas van Balen, in their quest to try and identify birds based on colors and markings, as well as the shape of their beaks, feet and tail feathers.

“We have to start early in the morning,” says Ady Kristanto, from a nongovernmental environmental organization called Jakarta Green Monster. “Between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., the birds make noises as they go about their business. They tend to be quieter toward noon.”

Jakarta Green Monster often invites bird-watching enthusiasts to participate in their regularly scheduled activities, ranging from roaming the capital’s parks and counting numbers of migratory raptors, to sailing to established bird sanctuaries on the nearby Thousand Islands, a trip they make at least once a year.

The group’s members range from biology students, who make up the majority of local bird-watchers, to teenagers like Khaleb, 17, and his brother Boas Emmanuel, 18, who co-founded the Jakarta Birder community in February 2009.

“My most memorable bird-watching experience was when I saw an entire marsh turn completely white with ibises,” Khaleb says.

When he was starting out his hobby, Khaleb says he was only interested in getting pictures of birds. But now that he has gradually learned how to identify them, he has become more enthusiastic about what is fast becoming his new interest: environmentalism.

“People don’t pay much attention to birds,” he says. “There’s a place in Ancol where there used to be a colony of 20 Javan plovers. Then a bridge was built there and now they’re gone.”

Avid bird-watcher Riri Rafiani, 36, says that such a lesson in ecology is one of the benefits of bird-watching. “I have learned that Jakarta’s birds are not limited to tree sparrows,” she says. “There are actually 99 species out there.”

Riri says that on every bird-watching outing, she’ll spot a species that she’s never seen before. “You never know what’s going to happen,” she says. “You might be staring at nothing and suddenly something flashes before your eyes, which on closer scrutiny might turn out to be a rarely seen species.”

Riri says she loves birds for their colorful p lumages and beautiful songs. Her interest started when a college friend persuaded her to take part in a bird-watching trip and she has been hooked ever since, having been to Muara Angke, Rambut Island and Dua Island wildlife reserves.

Unlike most bird-watchers, Riri is not a biology student or a researcher. The hobby has simply just caught on with her. She says that the pastime is also a good way to hone her senses of sight and hearing, as well as build her alertness. Sometimes, however, this interest has proven dangerous. “I’ve often been distracted by a passing bird while driving,” she says.

Riri says that one thing that keeps her interest in the hobby is debating with fellow enthusiasts when they are trying to identify a certain species. “Once, I had a long argument with a fellow bird-watcher over whether what we saw perched on a tree was a black eagle or a crested serpent eagle,” she says.

“It turned out that we were watching two different birds on the same tree. So both of us were right. It was rare for raptors to share the same tree, so we did not think there were two species perched there.”

Many of the city’s universities have their own bird-watching groups. However, Jakarta Green Monster’s Ady says such clubs struggle to retain members. “Often, when the active members graduate, the group will languish,” he says.

One exception to this though is the Nycticorax group from Jakarta National University. The group, established in 1995, has managed to remain active. Their chairwoman, Mella Ferania, who is a sophomore at the college, says the group has been involved in a lot of bird races, whereby teams comprised of three bird-watchers compete to identify as many species as possible, sometimes even without the help of a field guide.

“People often ask me what good is watching birds,” Mella says. “They just don’t know how much fun it is. To many people, birds are just birds. Ask them what kind of bird it is and they probably can’t answer.”