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Indonesia’s Bird King

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Download For some, listening to Mozart is bliss, while others like to rock to sounds of heavy metal bands.

43-year-old Indonesian telecommunications executive Duta Ong’s passion is to listen to songbirds sing.

He has more than 100 birds that he puts in weekly singing competitions.

The events are highly competitive with people willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a prize-winning song-bird.

Rebecca Henschke went to  meet  Duta Ong at his home on the day of a competition.

 

I have been travelling for about an hour and half through Jakarta’s notoriously bad traffic to reach Duta Ong’s house on the outskirts of the capital in a satellite city called Tangerang.

We have come through his house and out the back into a beautiful garden. There are frangipani trees, a big willow tree and hanging from the trees and out the back are around 100 songbirds in ornate wooden cages.

Q. Is this your sanctuary ?

“Yes, it my dream actually. It’s my dream because I come from a small city in Central Java and I grew up in a village environment then when I came to Jakarta from Monday to Friday it’s very stressful with a lot of activities in the city and on the weekend I want to be able to have a space that reminds me of the village of my past.”

Q. So you grew up in a village in Central Java  -  can you describe what that was like there?

"Sometimes I am laughing when I see people in Jakarta selling mountain view, mountain view. Sometimes when you have something in your hometown you don’t know that it’s priceless. There are still lots of paddy fields there and you can hear the birds singing, it’s very nice...that’s why I wanted to create a village situation in my house on the weekend and that’s why you can see my hobby bird singing.”

So we are in a room where the ceiling is filled with hanging bird cages, they are very ornate cages with Javanese and Chinese carvings, most of the cages are covered by traditional batik fabric.

The idea is to keep the birds in the dark so they don’t sing too much and get some rest.

Q. So today we are going to a competition, your birds are already there, how did you select the birds that are going to compete today?

“You can look at the body, the way it is singing, maybe the feather condition, many things, lots of factors.”

We have arrived at the bird competition, we have been driving for a couple of hours towards the hills behind Jakarta.

It’s an  open dusty field and there are groups of mainly men and a few women huddled around their bird cages.

Under some palm trees in the furthest corner is Duta Ong's team, led by manager Pak Tata.

“I look after these birds like they are our children, we give them love and give them what they want. We look at the character of the bird and love them in the same way you would love your different children. We give them special food and make sure they are relaxed before they enter the competition. The main thing is we have to give them a bath when we get to the field. If they have had a really nice bath then the bird will sing really well.”

Q. You say you love them like children, do you not feel sad that they are in cages and not free?

“Ah that’s a hard question cause this is a hobby. I do have that feeling of wanting to see them free but we look after them like they are children. It’s not like we put them in the cage and leave them, we really make sure they are happy because they are songbird contestants.”

“If I took them from the wild then it would be different but I don’t do that. Also if you release the bird they will not be able to survive also.”

In the middle of the field the next round is about to start.

The trainers are taking the covers off their bird cages and are carefully hanging them from steel rafters in a tent.

There are around 40 birds.   

The trainers are making whistling sounds and waving their hands and clicking, hyping their birds up.

It looks like a scene from the stock exchange. It’s all  designed  to get the attention of the birds and to tell them to sing!

There are six judges and they are walking underneath the dangling cages, listening intently. A senior judge shouts out ‘keep walking’ so they hear all the birds.

It’s hard to understand how they can judge individual bird sounds with all the noise.

After about 20 minutes the judges make their decision and place a flag underneath the winning bird.

Standing next to me is Pak Agung,  the head of the organising comittee, he tells me what the judges are looking for is the loudest and most beautiful voice.

That was the winner of the competition, he says he is extremely proud.

He says the secret is to train hard with the bird. He says this bird has been a winner continously since he bought it about a year ago. He paid around 1500 USD dollars for it.

Q. What kind of money is moving around this industry?

"It’s crazy, some of the people are really crazy sometimes they pay forty, fifty thousand US dollars for a bird."

Q. Forty thousand dollars for a bird?

"Yeah."

Q. You work as a telecommunications executive during the week, what do your collegues and your family think of your obsession or your passion for birds?

"I just want to enjoy my life. While you have a stressful life from Monday to Friday on the weekend you need something to release your stress and this is just one of the vehicles to release your stress.”

Four of Duta’s birds won that day and he walked away with five thousand dollars.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 April 2011 14:11 )  

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