Birds singing in the park

We live next to a park called Tao Dan. Every morning you can hear birds singing as you walk by. There are birdcages hanging from special metal stands and people sitting around in little plastic chairs. Sunday mornings are the busiest with most birdcages. We ventured to the park on Sunday to discover what this was about.

It is busy in the park on Sunday mornings.

Bird singing is a popular hobby, not just amongst elder people. People compete whose bird is the best singer. As we understood it, there is a competition once a year. All the other times the birds are taken into the park so that they would meet other birds and especially so that they would learn singing from more skilled birds. We have not found out how that happens. We were told some birds sing only once a week, but their sound is so beautiful that it makes the bird valuable.

On our way to the park, we bought some grasshoppers from a sales lady on the street.

Grasshoppers, bugs and worms for sale.

A small bag of grasshoppers cost 5,000 dong.

When we sat down, we noticed one man plucking the legs off the grasshoppers and the putting the remains of the grasshoppers into one bird’s cage. A we did not know if anyone is allowed to feed the birds, we gave our grasshoppers to him. He thanked us with a big smile.

Sundays are the busiest birdsinging days: there were more than 50 bird cages in Tao Dan park. And there were lots of spectators, mostly men. It is actually very relaxing to listen to the birds. They sing so loud that you barely hear the traffic righ next to you. The birds were of all colours and ranging from very tiny to medium-sized with long feathers.

Most of the cages are made of wood or bamboo and they are round, just of different sizes.

The best birds can have a value of almost a prize-winning dog. We still need to find out how they are sold or traded and how they teach the birds at home (in case they do it). When the bird geets too agitated, the cage is taken down and it is covered with a hood. If the birds are shy, they can also stay in a covered cage to familiarise with the sounds of the park (humans and other birds).

Most of the cage covers were made of cotton but some with nice elaborate silk.

We hope to see the real competition once it will take place. Maybe by then we will also know more about bird singing and have more intriguing facts to share.
There is a short video, which is in my Facebook, did not manage to insert it here.

A collection of bird cages in a motorbike repair shop.