Flags, coats of arms and standards

The Bali starling

The Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) is a bird endemic to Bali. It was discovered in 1912 by western ornithologists. The first live specimens arrived in Europe in 1928. In 2005, it was estimated to have a population of 50 individuals in the wild and a little more than 1000 in captivity. The bird has blue bare skin around the eyes, greyish legs and a yellow bill. Both sexes are similar. It is critically endangered and in 2018, fewer than 100 adults were assumed to exist in the wild.

It is a mystery how the starling came to occupy the central space of the flag of the Principality of Havoneea. It is quite credible that some specimens were gifted to the House of Havorfensen by Frederick or Cornelis de Houtman, who in a fleet of four ships —the Amsterdam, the Hollandia, the Mauritius and the Duyfken— had sailed from the Netherlands to Indonesia in 1956. A year later they reached the shores of Bukit and claimed it for the Dutch crown. Shortly thereafter, the Dutch established a trading colony and, beginning in the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company began trading in rivalry with British merchants

Considerably weakened by fevers and excessive intake of black pepper, he sent his dear friend Minimiliano XX with a select group of sailors a considerable number of Indonesian starlings. They arrived in the Netherlands in 1598, specifically in the city of Gouda a city in South Holland, famous for its cheese and pottery and followed them to the castle of the Havonean monarch, who was so dazzled by the birds that he never parted with them again. He made a greenhouse for them and there they thrived until they were no longer heard from. Cornelis de Houtman died in Aceh, Sumatra, on September 1, 1599. The flags that have been found show in their center one of these birds with a grim expression, with the bad mood of the emigrant, of the transplanted. They have been reconstructed and redesigned for display and use by the principality according to the demands of new communication technologies.