Archive for March, 2006
Malay MailÂ
The main ingredient in bird’s nest of the popular Chinese dish is the saliva of the male sea swiftlet.
It is widely believed that the bird’s nest helps in beauty care and improve skin complexion. The delicacy is said to enhance the body’s immune system through cell division caused by the water-soluble glyco-protein and helps to heal illness among others, connected with the respiratory system such as chronic cough, asthma or throat infection.
It can also reduce fatigue, strengthen body’s self-regulating actions, resistance to disease, and provide superior food supplement for pregnant women and after childbirth.
Chemical analysis of edible bird’s nest reveals that the main constituents are about 60 per cent water-soluble proteins, water and traces of fat, carbohydrates, calcium, potassium and sodium.
Edible bird’s nest first appeared in historical records of the Tang dynasty in China, during the reign of Empress Wu (626-706) showing that edible bird’s nest was already a highly-prized royal delicacy more than a thousand years ago.
March 9th, 2006
wildlifemanagement.info/publications
Six species of swallows occur in Alberta. Most have similar life histories and requirements for food and water. Only cliff and barn swallows regularly build mud nests on buildings and other structures. This habit occasionally causes problems. Cliff swallows can be a nuisance because they nest in large colonies of up to several hundred birds. Other swallows tend to nest in smaller colonies or in single pairs and consequently do not usually cause a major problem.
The barn swallow is the only swallow with a deeply-forked tail. The cliff swallow has a square tail. You can also identify a cliff swallow by its rust-colored throat and rump, and white forehead.
Traditionally, cliff swallows nested on cliffs, canyon walls and vertical banks close to food and water. Cliff swallows have increased in numbers and expanded their range because they now nest on man-made structures.
Swallow nests are cup or ball shaped. They are built with pellets of mud and are lined with grass, hair or feathers. One nest contains between 700 and 1,400 pellets, each representing one round trip to a water source as far away as 0.8 km (0.5 mile). Swallow nests are almost as hard as concrete and adhere well to building walls.
On buildings, the first nests usually are at the highest point possible, with other nests attached below. Swallows may build more than one nest per season. Even unmated birds will build nests. If eggs or nests are destroyed swallows will rebuild.
Damage
Swallows build nests on open walls on houses, barns, buildings and even idle machinery. They also whitewash and stain structures and foul feed and water with their droppings. Sparrows often use abandoned nests of cliff swallows and create additional problems.
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Control
Legal restrictions - Swallows are protected by international treaty. You cannot destroy or remove their nests and eggs except under a damage permit from Alberta Fish and Wildlife.
Nest Removal - Swallows are strongly attached to their nest sites, particularly in areas where birds have nested before. Removal of nests will not deter birds from rebuilding. Swallows will rebuild nests that are destroyed by wind and rainstorms; they will do the same if you knock a nest down with a broom or water hose.
You might discourage birds from nesting if nests are destroyed for several days in succession. However, swallows usually return to the same nest location each year, so you will have to do the same thing each year unless measures are taken to permanently discourage nest construction.
Exclusion - Exclusion of birds from nesting sites can be a long-term preventive measure. Swallows can be excluded from potential nest sites with barriers made from plastic sheeting, vinyl strips or fine-mesh wire. Nylon or wire mesh size should be 1.3 to 1.9 cm (0.5 to 0.75 in.) but 2.5 cm (1 inch) mesh is adequate.
Nets or other barriers must be installed before swallows arrive. After the fact exclusion can be expensive, time-consuming and ineffective.
Barriers, nets and plastic sheeting can be unattractive if they are not properly installed. To maintain building decorum and to effectively exclude swallows, be sure that all nets, plastic stripping and sheets are taut, neat and follow building contour and form. This will also maximize the benefit of barrier materials and devices. Loose or poorly fitted nets or other flexible material will have pockets or wrinkles that could trap or entangle birds, as well as windblown litter and debris.
The type of barrier you use will vary according to building shape and size and the degree of permanence required. Temporary barriers may be supported by tape, garbage bag ties, thumbtacks or staples. More elaborate rate methods involving rust resistant picture hooks or cup hooks can support permanent barriers. Hooks can also be used for temporary barriers.
Wooden dowels, laths and metal rods can be used to support nets. They can be attached by hooks or nailed directly to building surfaces. A power tool can be used to nail or screw net supports to concrete or cement surfaces.
Recommended swallow barriers are shown below.
Other devices and techniques
Most chemical repellents and mechanical scare devices are not effective in controlling swallows. Sticky- type repellents only improve nest adherence and make it easier for birds to construct their nests on buildings. Scare devices such as bird models, lights or noisemakers are usually expensive, impractical or ineffective.
Building design does influence nest-site suitability for swallows. The width of the overhang (i.e. soffit) is a key to site suitability. Swallows prefer to be sheltered by the eaves of a building. Swallows will generally not build nests where the overhang is less than 1 cm (6 inches). Nest construction often begins at a 90 0 corner at the junction of the vertical wall and overhang.
The surface of building materials is also important. Smooth metal or slick, smooth-painted surfaces are rarely used by swallows.
Net or wire attachment - Net or wire should extend to the outer edge of the eaves and far enough down the side of the building so that birds are fully exposed to the elements.
Curtain barrier - Hang a curtain of net, plastic or aluminum foil
from a wire or lath attached to the soffit 7.6 to 10 cm (3 to 4 inches) from
the wall and extending downward about 46 cm (18 inches).
Metal projections - Place two or three rows of metal spines or
“porcupine quills” 7.6 to 10 cm (3 or 4 inches) in length where wall and
eaves of roof join. Porcupine quills are available from commercial pest control
companies. The metal projections should be placed along the entire length of the wall.
Concave panel - Fibreglass, plastic or other easily molded smooth surfaced material
should be attached to the eaves and wall to form a smooth concave surface.
Slick surfaces - Use waxed paper or other slick water-proof surfaces to discourage
nesting. Paint that dries to a slick, hard surface can be applied to walls and eaves that already
have smooth surfaces. Paint as much of the eaves and walls as possible.
Information prepared by:
John Bourne
Regional Supervisor,
Problem Wildlife
Vermilion
March 8th, 2006
Swallows of the family Hirundinidae are small, adept aerialists with long, pointed wings and deeply forked tails. Although their bills are short, their mouths are wide for capturing flying insects. Overall, swallows resemble swifts but have stronger, more fluid flight. Highly gregarious, they form large flocks and may be seen perched in long rows along branches or wires. Three species of swallows occur in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve; Tree, Bank and Violet-Green Swallows. Tree Swallows are named for their affinity for nesting in tree cavities and snags. Their Latin name, Tachycineta bicolor, means “fast-moving, two-colors,” referring to their rapid wingbeats and distinctive plumage.
Descriptions: Tree Swallows are common in wooded habitats near water, where dead snags are available. As their Latin name implies, these small, 15cm swallows are distinctly bicolored. Their glossy, blue-green upperparts starkly contrast with the bright-white of their underparts. The characteristic white cheek-patch (auricular) does not extend above the eyes (as it does in the Violet-green Swallow). Juveniles are uniformly gray-brown above, with white tips to their tertial feathers, white on the sides of the head and a pale-gray breast band.
Vocalizations: The sweet song of the Tree Swallow is composed of clearly whistled, liquid notes,” twit-weet, twit-weet, liliweet, twit-weet.” Their call is a high, liquid chirping or twittering. When alarmed, the call is a harsh chatter. Large autumn flocks give scratchy “tzeer” notes.
Nests: As their name implies, Tree Swallows nest in tree-cavities, snags or nest boxes, especially near water. These swallows nest in loose colonies and compete for nest cavities with other species. Nests are constructed by both parents of grasses and lined with feathers. A clutch consists of 4-6, 19mm, white and unmarked eggs. The female alone incubates the clutch for 16 days and young birds fledge in another 16-24 days. Both parents care for the offspring.
Diet: The diet of the Tree Swallow is composed of mostly insects, although berries may be eaten in winter. These birds are elegant fliers and dart to catch flying insects in aerial pursuit but occasionally may glean insects from the ground. Juveniles are known to attempt to steal food from nestlings and adults in adjacent nests!
Distribution: Tree Swallows aggregate in large, pre-migratory, communal roosts. Migrating in huge flocks, these birds are the first of the swallows to arrive in spring and linger farther north in fall. They winter in Honduras, Nicaragua and coastal Costa Rica. During the breeding season, they range throughout most of Alaska and Canada, southward from California and eastward across the Unites States to Georgia. Within Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, a single Tree Swallow was detected in the boreal forest of the Ogilvie Lime/Dolostone Mountains (OM) ecological unit during the Avian Inventory in June 1999 and 2000. Tree Swallows are expected to be more numerous in the Preserve, but swallow species in general were not well inventoried using our survey technique.
March 7th, 2006
sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues
To birders, the variety of sizes, shapes, colors, songs, habitats and behaviors of our feathered friends are fascinating and account for much pleasure. However, if you go a little farther and search carefully, you will find another much-varied dimension of the bird world - their nests.
Birds’ nests are constructed from a variety of materials in a variety of locations. They range from carefully constructed, complex structures of grass, straw, sticks or mud, to a snug, wood-walled structure, to a simple bare spot on the ground. Some birds, such as the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), do not build nests. Instead, they are parasitic and lay their eggs in other bird’s nests
The photograph above shows the tiny, camouflaged nest of a hummingbird with its outside covering of lichens. This nest, which was photographed by Forrest Mims along Geronimo Creek in Guadalupe County, Texas, is most likely that of a ruby throated hummingbird (Archilocus colubris), as they are the most common nesters in this area. This nest may weigh only an ounce, but it represents substantial effort on the part of the parents and provides the cover and concealment for their clutch of tiny eggs.
A good example of a nest which required minimal effort on the part of the parent birds is the “nest” of the common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) from LaSalle County, Texas, in the adjacent photograph. The nest site was found while I was searching for Indian artifacts and would likely not have been noticed but for the parents’ swooping and calling as I entered the opening in the brush. Their behavior, meant to distract, alerted me to the possibility of a nest site, and after about 15 minutes I found it.
The two eggs, which are easily overlooked, resemble smooth stones. On a second visit to the nest site nine days later, I could find no sign that there had ever been a clutch of eggs. It is possible that a predator, such as a snake, raccoon, skunk, or feral hog, could have eaten the eggs or fledglings, but there were no signs to indicate what happened
If you have driven along highways in much of Canada and the United States during summer, you have probably noticed swallows swooping around overpasses and perching on utility wires, sometimes in large flocks. These may be either cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) or barn swallows (Hirundo rustica).
Cliff swallow nests are finely constructed of mud and stuck to a horizontal surface or on a ledge under a bridge, culvert or overpass. They are occasionally found on buildings.
Cliff swallow nests may be distinguished from those of barn swallows by construction (overhead cover and tubular entrance) and location. The cliff swallow nest shown here, which was photographed in Guadalupe County in South-Central Texas, has a characteristic roof, a circular entrance and is nearly tubular in shape.
Barn swallows generally build on manmade structures, such as barns and under porches and carports. They may use bridges and overpasses as well. Barn swallows are tenacious, and, once they decide they like a location, they are hard to chase away. The barn swallow nest shown here was photographed in Guadalupe County, Texas. The nest is an open cup without a tubular entrance that is stuck against a horizontal surface or, perhaps, built on a ledge. Both cliff and barn swallows have adapted to man’s influence on their environment, willingly building their nests where buildings and other structures suit them.
The cactus wren (Campylorhyncus brunneicapillum) is the largest wren found in North America. It is identified by its size, distinct white eye-stripe and overall streaked appearance. It builds a football shaped nest of grass and straw with a side entrance. The nest shown here was neatly built between the pads of a prickly pear cactus.
This nest was photographed in LaSalle County in South Texas. It demonstrates the wren’s accommodating nature, for it was built near an equipment shed adjacent to farm equipment and a grain storage facility. Other than fussing at the ranch workers as they moved by or through the area, the wrens went about their business and raised their brood.
Woodpeckers chisel out holes in trees, utility poles and even buildings and use the cavity for their nests. The hole shown here in a mesquite tree in LaSalle County, Texas, was originally made by a golden-fronted woodpecker (Centurus aurifrons).
In subsequent years, the cavity has been used by other species, including wrens and flycatchers
March 6th, 2006
TSHA Online
tsha.utexas.edu
Swallows, of the family Hirundinidae, are among the most conspicuous, well known, and beneficial of birds; they feed in flight on numerous insects detrimental to man. Seven of the eight species occurring in Texas are colonial to some extent, and all are migratory. Most have developed close associations with man and his works, constructing their nests on bridges and buildings or within highway culverts and birdhouses. They are streamlined in form, with relatively long, pointed wings and small feet, and, with the exceptions noted below, average between five and six inches in length. Snakes, hawks, and owls appear to be their major natural predators. All swallows are protected by federal and state law. Descriptions that follow are for adult birds.
The purple martin (Progne subis), the state’s largest (about eight inches long) swallow, is probably the species best known to most city and suburban dwellers. This is the only United States swallow whose sexes differ markedly in appearance; males are shiny blue-black both top and bottom, and females and immatures have light breasts and bellies. Early northward migrants arrive in Texas in late January or February. They lay three to five white eggs in loosely built nests constructed of sticks and twigs within nestboxes or other available cavities and rear only one brood a year. The tree swallow (Iridoprocne bicolor) does not breed in Texas but is a common spring and fall migrant throughout the state. It is frequently seen near bodies of water and is a relatively slender and graceful flyer that intersperses curving glides with bouts of wingbeats. Its back is an iridescent greenish or bluish-black and its underparts are immaculate white. The violet-green swallow (Tachycineta thalassina) nests in forests and canyons of mountainous areas in western Texas. It is similar to the tree swallow but can be distinguished from it by the white markings that extend from its underparts around the base of its tail and almost meet at midline. It builds nests within tree cavities and holes in stream banks, as well as in bird boxes. It lays four to six white eggs and rears one, or possibly two, broods per season. Rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx ruficollis) are agile and rapid fliers with slender shapes, brown backs, and lighter underparts. In Texas, they tend to be only loosely colonial and nest throughout the state in cliff crevices and holes in dirt banks or concrete embankments. Eggs are white and number three to seven; in Texas, one brood usually is reared. The bank swallow (Riparia riparia) is a small, relatively stocky, highly colonial swallow with light, fluttering flight, brown upper parts, and a dark breastband across its light underparts. Its breeding sites are widely separated and scarce in Texas, and their use is frequently irregular. The bank swallow lays three to six white eggs in grass nests constructed at the ends of burrows dug in dirt, sand, or gravel banks, and apparently rears only one brood per year in this state.
Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) are common residents of country and suburban areas. They display shiny blue-black backs, rusty underparts, and a band of white spots across deeply forked tail feathers. Although average for swallows in body size, they have long tail feathers that increase the length of adults to about seven inches. Their flight is aggressive; they forage usually within thirty feet of ground level. They deposit three to six speckled eggs in an open cup nest of mud, grass, and hair, built on a barn rafter or culvert wall and usually lined with feathers. The barn swallow rears two to three broods during spring and summer. In south central Texas, at the northern margin of their distribution, cave swallows (Petrochelidon fulva) recently have begun to extend their range by utilizing highway culverts as substitutes for their traditional cavern and sinkhole breeding sites. Their upper parts are medium brown, and they have prominent buffy or light-orange rumps. The tail is short and unforked, and the underparts are light in color. The throat usually is buffy. A conspicuous forehead patch is chestnut brown in color. On the walls or ceilings of caves and culverts they build nests with flaring rims, composed primarily of mud or bat guano; they use less grass in nest walls than barn swallows. Cave swallows lay three to five speckled eggs and rear two or three broods. Along highways in South Texas, this species is frequently seen with the barn swallow; the two species occasionally hybridize. The cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) is similar in size and color to the cave swallow, but its throat is usually much darker than that of the cave swallow, and Texas populations of cliff swallows may have either cream-colored forehead patches (in the northern portion of the state), cinnamon or fawn-colored forehead patches (southern portion), or chestnut forehead patches (the Big Bend). Cave swallow forehead patches are always chestnut brown. Major behavioral differences also separate these species. Cave swallows rear two to three broods and leave their breeding sites relatively late in the season (early September), while cliff swallows usually rear only one brood (three to five young) per season and leave their breeding sites early. The mud nests of cliff swallows are built in conspicuous locations beneath elevated rocky ledges and bridges or on buildings; they can be identified by their globular shape and tubular entrances. Urban populations of this species have been reduced in number by disturbance from the house sparrowqv and people; this problem continues in suburban and rural areas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: American Ornithologists’ Union, Check-List of North American Birds, 5th ed. (Ithaca, New York, 1957). Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to the Birds of Texas (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960).
Robert F. Martin
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March 3rd, 2006
sfgate.com
Sarah Rooney, Chronicle Foreign Service
Muk Island, Thailand — High in the caves of Thailand’s idyllic southern islands lies an unlikely treasure that people are willing to kill for — the nest of a sparrowlike bird called the swiftlet.
About a half-dozen companies, which have been granted concessions by local governments to gather swiftlet nests for the lucrative bird’s nest soup market,
are protecting their fiefdoms with private armies that shoot at “unauthorized” visitors. They also bribe authorities to look the other way, charge tourist operators protection money and keep locals suspected of being poachers from their traditional fishing grounds on the coast of the scenic Andaman Sea.
These concessionaires are so secretive about their operations on about 140 cave-ridden limestone islands that few Thai officials have any idea what they are up to or are willing to provide much information.
“The bird’s nest companies are big and influential,” said a bureaucrat from the tax revenue department in Bangkok who spoke off the record. “We can’t give out information (about their activities) to just anyone.”
But it is no secret that swiftlet colonies are being depleted to supply Chinese restaurants with edible nests from glutinous globs of dried bird saliva that are cooked in a broth. The soup is popular because it is believed to help growth, skin complexion and sex drive, prevent lung disease and stave off aging.
When a swiftlet’s cup-shaped nest is taken before it can lay eggs, the bird is forced to build another one. In the caves, collectors shimmy up bamboo poles lashed together with liana vines. Death and injury from falls are not uncommon.
The climbers typically take two nests from each bird, allowing the bird to rear its young in a third so the population can regenerate. But high demand has increasingly caused gatherers to take that nest as well, and baby birds are sometimes thrown away.
A local source familiar with the bird’s nest industry said there are only one-third as many nests as there were a decade ago, and the swiftlets have abandoned many caves.
“When the resources are of such high value, the temptation is to take as much as you can get hold of,” said Charli Evans, representative in Thailand for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international group that monitors commerce in endangered species.
Many people interviewed for this story were afraid to speak on the record. A resident of the town of Puhuket who has spoken out against a nest company’s violent tactics has moved his residence four times because of death threats. “It is a dark business,” he said.
The Chinese began eating bird’s nest soup about 1,500 years ago. Today, millions of nests are sent to Chinese communities around the world. Hong Kong is the world’s largest market, followed by the United States, mainland China and Taiwan.
Some call it “white gold,” because a kilo (2.2 pounds) sells for almost $2, 000. A bowl of bird’s nest soup at a good Hong Kong restaurant can go for as much as $60. Thailand exports about 19,800 pounds annually, which generates $23.8 million in taxes.
A push by CITES to protect swiftlets has failed, mostly because of opposition by southeast Asian countries where so much money is at stake.
In Thailand’s southern Trang province, a company called Satun Trang Bird’s Nest recently obtained a five-year concession on swiftlet nests. Fishermen on Muk say company speedboats have chased them away and armed men have shot at them if they sailed too close to company operations. In the early 1990s, clashes between licensed collectors and locals who poached on nest concession areas resulted in the deaths of 29 villagers in a nearby area called Pattalung,
according to the Bangkok Post.
“I was standing at the head of my boat looking for schools of fish,” said San Khang-Nam, who, along with his son and nephew, was recently wounded by guards shooting at them when their boat approached company operations. “I didn’t have any idea what had happened (until) I felt the heat of the blood running down my leg.”
Daraeb Meun-Phakdee, an elderly resident who has fished on Muk since childhood, says the island has become too dangerous. “I can’t even feed my family anymore,” he said.
Area fishermen have filed police reports after each attack, but their complaints typically have been ignored. Fear of trigger-happy security guards is so great that a Muk fisherman recently sailed into a typhoon rather than risk waiting out the storm near a concession area. His boat sank, and he drowned. His daughter clung to a piece of Styrofoam and managed to drag her father’s body ashore.
Apichit Angsutrangkul, who runs Satun Trang Bird’s Nest, did not return calls seeking comment.
Until 1997, the bird’s nest industry was governed by a 61-year-old law. Then new legislation decentralized control, giving local governments the power to grant five-year concessions to the highest bidder in exchange for tax payments of $252 per kilo collected. This new system is riddled with corruption, most observers agree.
The companies avoid paying higher taxes by reporting fewer kilos. “If they get 600 kilos, they report 200. I should know. I used to count them,” said a former manager of Satun Trang Bird’s Nest, who asked to remain anonymous.
A committee headed by the local governor is supposed to oversee the tax collection. “There are no real checks,” said Issama-el Bensaard, a committee member and industry critic. “The checks take place in hotel restaurants over red wine and meals hosted by Satun Trang Bird’s Nest. They even serve us bird’s nest.”
Ironically, many islands are part of national parks and should be protected by the Royal Forestry Department. Yet concessionaires often have refused access to forestry officials.
“We are not getting the full cooperation of the companies,” said Schwann Tunhikorn, director of the Royal Forestry Department’s Wildlife Conservation Department.
But Somsak Kittidhrakul, president of P.P. Cabana, owner of the nation’s largest bird’s nest concession of almost 100 islands, says he is taking the necessary precautions to preserve the swiftlet.
“To conserve the bird population is the first tenet of our business,” he said. “We wouldn’t kill our own livelihood now, would we?”
March 2nd, 2006
By Geoff Earle
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
washtimes.com
EAST KALIMANTAN, Indonesia (UPI) — Utuh has never tried bird’s nest soup, but for 45 days at a stretch, the indigenous Dayak man with a wide face and bare feet stays in an open house made of logs in a jungle clearing overlooking a large cave so that others — mainly Chinese, but also some Indonesians — can enjoy the ancient delicacy.
Utuh, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, is part of a substantial network of guards watching over caves that are home to Indonesia’s swift birds, members of a small species resembling swallows that produce a special nest favored by connoisseurs. Other men specialize in extracting the nests from the caves to bring them to market. It is all part of a sizeable cottage industry in East Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, home to one of the world’s largest tropical rainforests.
The tiny birds’ nests, which some consider an aphrodisiac, are big business here and throughout southeast Asia. A kilogram of nests can fetch as much as $1,800.
Environmentalists say the nest business has the potential to provide a way for indigenous people here to make a living off the forest other than cutting it down. Logging and an ongoing threat of forest fires threaten to overwhelm all of the old-growth forests here within the next 15 years.
“It’s legal,” said Scott Stanley, who directs the East Kalimantan office of The Nature Conservancy. “It’s quite sustainable, too” — so long as it is done the right way.
Some scientists, and even those who harvest the nests, acknowledge the swift birds are endangered by the increasing competition in one of the poorest parts of the world. The Indonesian national government has put forward a new regulation of the nest business that awaits the new president’s signature. The scientists are concerned that without new regulations and robust enforcement, nest harvesting will overtax the species and threaten its long-term survival.
Part of the problem is, with growing demand and shrinking supply, the nests have become so valuable people are removing them from caves faster than the birds can rebuild them. Swift birds make nests by regurgitating a protein in their saliva called mucilage, which solidifies to form the nests.
The birds attach their white, sticky nests to the interior walls and high vaulted ceilings of numerous caves carved into massive rock formations in the jungle. The birds, among the fastest flyers of any species, dart in and out of the caves to feed, flying by echolocation — just like their cave neighbors, bats.
Utuh guards the caves to fend off any rival nesters who might try to poach on the territory belonging to his boss, who has an official government concession to harvest them. According to environmental scientists, however, the harvesters pose the biggest threat to the swift birds by pushing them beyond their ability to produce new nests.
“When I first started collecting birds’ nests, I’d go in a cave like this, and get as much as 14 kilograms” of nests, said Tewet, who started collecting in the 1960s. Now, he said, a single trip brings forth as little as 4 ounces.
Utuh works for a Chinese businessman named Liong, who owns the concession to extract nests from a large complex of caves here. He brushes aside questions about reputed mob control, saying he always conducts a straight business and never tries to keep any of his his boss’s profits.
“There are some people who are corrupt,” he said through a translator. “Some people who are not. Those who are corrupt don’t last long. Because I want to keep my job, I keep everything clear,” he said, using the pidgin Indonesian word “gelas,” for “glass.”
Utuh said Liong owns the concession to all of the caves on the mountain.
“Many people work for Liong,” he said. “There are many, many caves around here.”
Of the nests harvested in Indonesia, many are destined for mainland China and Taiwan. Hong Kong is among the biggest importers. According to an article by two Indian naturalists in National Geographic BirdWatcher, Hong Kong imports up to 100 tons of nests each year, at a cost of about $25 million.
The nests are used as a thickener for broth and are combined with chicken and spices. Recipes date back more than 1,000 years in China and the dish is often served on special occasions — fetching about $60 in some Hong Kong restaurants.
Competition to acquire a piece of the action can be fierce — even deadly. When the government of the Berau district decided to provide open access to one cave in the region, chaos ensued.
“There were robberies and killings — pretty bad stuff,” said Leo Salas, a biologist working with TNC, which has organized biological surveys and conservation efforts in the region.
The guardhouse Utuh inhabits is expansive and built high among the trees with a commanding view. Constructed of logs hand-cut by machete and fastened with plastic twine, it is sturdy, although it was built only three months ago to replace another that burnt in a devastating fire. One portion is for sleeping, another is a sort of living room with a place for a fire and storage for plastic jerry cans full of water and cooking oil, and there is a high perch for a lookout.
The rising threat to the swift birds is evident, said Tewet, 57, a lanky man who sports a long-sleeved yellow T-shirt and carries a wood-handled machete.
“Before, there were large number and we could get them in pretty much every cave,” he said. “Now, we need to go long distances into the forest to find small caves.”
Tewet, who also serves as a forest guide, said it takes about 45 days for a swift bird to make a nest. In the old days, he said, nesters would leave nests and come back weeks later if the birds were waiting for their eggs to hatch. Now, that does not always happen.
“If the eggs are laid and we see them, we wait until the swifts fledge,” Tewet said, adding that other people take the eggs and eat them.
He complained local Dayak people no longer get to perform most of the work. “Now, outsiders do it,” he said.
Sidong, another nester, moved to Borneo from the island of Flores after he was offered a job by Liong’s group. He guards another cave about a two-hour hike away, living with several other men in an open wood structure with a plastic tarp overhead.
Sidong, who displays a photo of a woman he says is one of his wives, described his business practices while stuffing several cartons of Indonesian cigarettes into a large knapsack. He said he and the other nesters use long sticks to knock the nests down from high up in the caves.
“If we see them, we get them,” he said, “even if they have birds or eggs.”
Asked how the eggs tasted, Sidong laughed and replied, “bagus,” a popular expression meaning “cool,” though he added if he knows for certain there are eggs in a nest, he waits before harvesting it.
Sidong said the concession for the entire cave system in the area cost 450 million rupiah for three years, or about $50,000 — a huge amount of money in this part of the world. The organization employs about 100 people to manage 70 caves.
There are two species of swiftlets who make an edible nest: the black swiftlet and the white rumped swiftlet. Both live here, as well as in Northwest China, Sumatra and Java. Indonesia, whose island rainforests wrap around the equator, is home to the majority of the productive birds, according to Mas Noerdjito, an Indonesian biologist with the government’s research facility, called LIPI.
“Indonesia doesn’t have a cold season,” Noerdjito explained. “In other areas, there is seasonal productivity, whereas in Indonesia, it’s year round.”
After a swift bird makes a nest and lays an egg, it waits about five months before it lays another. Nesters can trick the bird into building another nest sooner, however, by removing the first one. The method works well, unless it is used to the point where the bird’s biological resources are exhausted.
“At the end, the animal just basically gives up breeding,” Noerdjito said.
In one part of Java called Pacitan where swiftlets nest, the birds’ productivity in nest production has dropped to 0.03 percent of 1949 levels, Noerdjito said. Nesters have sought to make up for declining wild nests by harvesting them in captivity — a growing enterprise.
There are efforts to impose order on Indonesia’s swift bird industry, which is thought to be dominated by cartels from China that secure lucrative concessions through accommodations with local Indonesian officials.
A new national regulation is expected to receive final approval soon, but conservationists warn Indonesia’s highly devolved government, which guarantees substantial local autonomy, makes local enforcement extremely difficult. Moreover, they said, any regulation must go beyond simple harvesting rates to include the bird’s overall environment. Swift birds, agile flyers all, need a forest area as large as 5 miles (8 kilometers) square in which to feed on insects.
“The regulation cannot just be how many nests you take,” Noerdjito said. “The regulation must be something about the area they use. It will not succeed by police enforcement.”
Illegal logging and the threat of further forest fires pose additional threats to the swift birds’ habitat.
“These areas that have burned need to be reforested,” Noerdjito said. “This is something local people at the moment don’t seem to understand.”
March 1st, 2006
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