A Day Out with the Birds

Yesterday (9/9/12) the campus car/bike parks were buzzing with the sounds of motor cycles arriving.  The difference from the normal traffic noise was very marked (especially for a Sunday).  The birds were singing.  Not the tiny, drab sparrow-like birds which hang about in the trees waiting for the chance to raid the rice fields.  These were loud and complex bird songs.  The sports field was the venue for a regional bird singing competition.  Whilst I’ve seen the caged birds lined up at past Agricultural Shows, on those days the judges seemed to just examine the birds for physical characteristics.

 

Exhibitors / contestants brought their birds in large covered travel cages in the backs of cars, or held then as they rode in on their motor cycles.  There was barely a space left in the car/bike parks and cars lined the entrance road.  This was clearly a big day. 

 

Many birds arrived by motor cycle - a
tricky business in a bit of a cross wind.

Vendors were selling lunches, snacks, drinks, T-shirts, bird supplements and all sorts of things as the predominantly male crowd came into the contest area.  It was amusing to see groups of “macho” looking men whistling to their birds and spraying them down to keep them cool. 

 

Widi, our IT team leader watches proceedings. 

 

An owner sprays his bird to maintain
its comfort and peak performance.



This bold T-shirt design had me stumped until I
 found out that Zosterops is the scientific name
 for birds of the Black-capped White-eye family

A Bali bird-fancier t-shirt - the perfect gift

The birds were kept under wraps most of the time – apparently not seeing other birds in the pre-match build-up is a performance-enhancing trick.  Covered cages were hung from trees, fence posts and cages were stacked around the campus.   

An owner plays a bird song to encourage
his bird when the warps come off.

Owners and cages were all around the oval

Cages ranged from simple wire cages to the ornately decorated. I don’t know if the cage encourages greater performance.

 



A simple functional cage containing a Red Anis bird

Here's a more elaborate cage. But
does it inspire the bird to sing better?

Although the competition schedule listed 24 categories of competition and covered several types of birds (including canaries and love birds), the most abundant bird type was the Punglor Merah (Red Anis bird) for which there were 5 categories of competition including “Bintang” (not the beer, but the “Star” Bird).  Prize money for the higher classes was up to 1.25 million Rp (approx $125 which is a huge amount to a person who could earn just 5000 Rp per hour).

The Punglor Merah or Red Anis bird.

 The Red Anis bird seemed to be the most favoured bird in the competitions, and I was told it was because of that bird’s superior characteristics.  Don’t take what I write as absolutely correct as I’m merely trying to report what I (think I)heard from some of the competitors.

 

According to researchers for BIRD INDONESIA, the Red Anis is the 3rd most popular pet bird species kept by people in Denpasar and several cities in Java.  Chirping practice sessions are held almost weekly and competitions held most months in the larger cities with bird fanciers.  It’s all a bit staggering for a novice like me!  Apparently the birds are quick learners and good mimics of other birds, and they develop a repertoire of chirps and swaying movements which are encouraged to produce good match performance.

 

I saw a roughly translated set of notes describing the birds, their feeding and training regimes, and health care.  It said that the birds were “prone to lust” and could get easily bored unless stimulated by new surrounds and experiences.  The notes also gave feeding tips to maintain pre-competition fitness – caterpillars, crickets (sometimes just the heads but whole bodies at other times).  Clearly this is a highly competitive and complex practice.

 

This Red Anis is clearly not  bird to be messed with
(from web site of Indonesian Bird Hobby group)

In the competition events I observed about 30 cages were hung on the frame of the shading canopy and the covers were removed. 

 

Judges listen to the song and watch the bird
movements from beneath the hanging cages

 

 

 

Beneath each cage was a plastic chair with a holder attached to the top back of the chair.  The judges moved around, pausing below each cage to listen and observe the volume, variety, rhythm and continuity of the song, and also the “buzz” - the novelty of body movement (the bird, not the judges).  If impressed, the judge left one of his coloured “flags” on the chair.  Scrutineers tallied the flags at the end of each round to find the winner. 

 

 

A judge awards a flag to a bird

 

Beyond the canopy and outside the surrounding fence the owners would whistle, wave their arms and do other things to attract their bird’s attention so it would maintain a potentially prize winning performance.  I asked one of the owners if his performance at the fence made any difference to the bird, and did he think his bird even noticed him.  He told me that he had a bond with the bird and it would watch for him and respond.  Well, maybe.   Frankly I’m not convinced, but I’m just a first-time attender, and a complete novice, so what could I possibly know about these mysteries of bird behaviour and man-bird bonding?

Owners trying to encourage their birds,
but I'm not convinced the birds knew.

On YouTube an example of a performance by a Red Anis bird can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwB3QH-cYAc&feature=player_embedded

 

Although the Red Anis clearly had numbers on its side, I was more taken by the “green bird”.  Clearly I’m not a well informed bird song aficionado.  A little Wiki-assisted research led me to believe that my preferred “green bird” is in fact the Cucak Ijo, but I shall refrain from boring you with bird-talk after exhausting you with facts about the lusty Red Anis.

 



I liked "the green bird" - a Cucak Ijo

Eventually the schedule ran out of events or the birds ran out of song and the competition was over.  The judges announced the not-always well received results, prizes were awarded and the bird owners packed up and went home. 

Eventually this owner loaded 8 cages.

Off they go - there'll be another
competition somewhere else soon.

The arena cleared quickly apart from a few men who stayed around for a chat.

"Winners are grinners".  This exhibitor shows me
his certifcate and 100,000 Rp prize money as a 3rd
prize winner in one of the "popular" categories.



The last exhibitor leaves the grounds.  Some folk just
have to give a wave whenever there's a camera about.

What did I learn from the day’s experience?  Not a lot about birds.  But it was another reminder of how carried away enthusiasts can get about their passions, and that the competitive streak runs deep in people who find their outlets in a great variety of ways.  I felt like a novice watching some mysterious ritual at times, but overall being out with the birds was all good fun.