The Cranes of Petulu

A strange, natural phenomenon occurs each evening in the village of Petulu, 15 minutes north of Kano Sari. Thousands of white herons start arriving here around 5.30 pm to roost for the night before flying off again in the morning. The heron’s mating and nesting season coincides with Bali’s rainy season, roughly from November to March. Starting in November, the birds will build their nests and the female will lay 4 to 6 eggs which will hatch in December-January. The chicks can fly by March. The birds first began coming here after a communist massacre in 1965. Local lore holds that these are the souls of those that were killed. Such a predictable gathering of these large and beautiful birds is a spectacle not to be missed.