Despite its garish exterior, the Bali Myna has a turbulent and convoluted past. The bird was in danger of extinction in the 1960s as a result of habitat loss and poaching for the illegal bird trade. In actuality, by the middle of the 1990s, there were just six known Bali Mynas left in the wild.

Conservationists started a captive breeding programme in the 1970s, which marked the start of efforts to rescue the Bali Myna. As a result of the program’s effectiveness, hundreds of Bali Mynas had been hatched in captivity by the 1980s. However, releasing birds that were raised in captivity into the wild proved to be a challenge because many of the birds did not survive because they lacked previous outside experience.