Today we attended a bird-singing competition as a part of Nick’s photo assignment. Indonesians love to keep birds and a percentage of bird hobbyists partake in these competitions. It is akin to the western dog show. The birds are groomed from a young age to learn the most exotic songs. They are loved and coveted and fed special food. Young birds are placed in rooms with songbird CD’s playing or preferably with an older bird from the wild, often of another species to diversify the vocalization of the songbird trainee.
The birds are incredibly territorial and upon seeing another, they erupt in a frenzy of songs. The bird singing competitions are held on Sundays and attended by individuals, families and bird-keeping teams. The birds arrive on in elaborate cages with batik covers, sometimes strapped on the back of motorcycles or even by bicycle. The early morning is spent spraying the birds with cool water, feeding them ‘special’ grubs to enhance the voice and preparing them according to each individual handler’s ‘special technique’. The actual competition is conducted in an arena with scaffolding bars built to hang the cages. The classes are broken down by species and around 30 to 50 birds compete in each class.
Once the birdcages have been hung, 5 judges wander underneath the cages evaluating each individual song. The judging, in and of itself, seems to me to be an incredibly difficult task considering the cacophony of 50 birds singing at once. Even more impressive is the amount of yelling and screaming that erupts from the crowds of bird owners that are kept outside the arena by a sturdy, waist-high fence. The excitement has been aptly equated to a football match, with similar concentrations of testosterone coursing through the non-avian masses. The birds are waved at with spastic flickers of the owner’s hand in undulating rhythms across the audience while special bird whistles are repeatedly squeaked. Meanwhile the crowd yells incessantly at the judges to go listen to ‘bird number 62, bird 62!’ The scene is almost overwhelming.
After each bird has been judged by the 5 judges, each judge place one red flag (worth 100 points) and a blue flag (worth 50 points) under the birds with the choicest song. A winner is determined and a runner-up declared. If, per chance, two birds remain with the same number of points, a coin is tossed to fatefully decide the winner. There are no third-places. Depending on the coin toss, you either win, or don’t.
These bird-singing events last all day. Nick spent over 6 hours photographing this competition and walked home with incredible images. Most people were amazingly receptive to having their photograph taken and ignored Nick. At times though (particularly after a good winning streak), groups and teams only wanted the classically posed ‘surround-the-birdcage with thumbs-up’ photos that are great for the family album but do little to contribute to the artistic interpretation of the actual contest. Overall, this is a fascinating photo assignment that is both challenging and interesting, both for the photographer and the assistant. (Photos courtesy of Wendy Miles)
No comments:
Post a Comment