

Tweet, tweet. Who doesn’t love the trills and warbles of birds? God equipped many of them to produce complex calls and sing melodious refrains. Some people trap, smuggle, and exploit birds—all because of their beautiful songs.
Francis Gurahoo flew from Guyana to the United States. Inside his luggage, customs officials discovered 34 live finches (colorful, seed-eating songbirds). The birds were squeezed inside plastic hair curlers. Gurahoo planned to sell them for their voices.
Owning songbirds isn’t illegal. But officials know bird competitions involve illegal gambling. According to law enforcement, people buy finches to enter them in singing contests. Then they bet on the outcomes.
In New York City, contests often take place in city parks. Two birds compete in “bird-racing.” It’s not what you think. Bird-racing is speed-singing.
Bird owners stick two birds in cages. Judges count as the competing birds sing. Every pause counts as one song. The first bird to 50 songs wins. Another similar contest involves most chirps-per-minute.
A winning bird “can sell in excess of $5,000,” Special Agent Gabriel Harper tells The New York Post. He also notes that finches from Guyana are the most desired because of their beautiful voices.
New Yorkers aren’t the only folks obsessed with songbirds. (For another example, read “Freeing Colombia’s Songbirds”) In Indonesia, wild songbirds are disappearing. They’re captured and sold for bird-singing contests.
High-prize, high-pressure competitions in Indonesia mean bird handlers will do almost anything to enter the best songster they can find. They use fake leg bands, phony papers, and whatever else they need to misrepresent wild birds as ones they’ve brought up by hand.
Catching wild birds is illegal. But it’s cheaper than breeding them. Poachers catch birds by putting glue and nets on tree branches where the birds live. “I do this work to survive,” a poacher named Afrizal told The New York Times. “Of course, I feel guilty. If they die, I feel even sadder.” But he doesn’t stop.
Bird-singing contests have become so popular that they attract thousands of onlookers. On the Indonesian island of Java, government officials even judge so-called “chirping competitions.” Judges scored birds on how many voices they can mimic or how quickly they can sing. Cash prizes run between $1,200 and $20,000.
Marison Guciano is founder and executive director of a bird protection group. He says Indonesian poachers seize more than 20 million songbirds each year. “Indonesia’s forests are silent, millions of birds have moved from the forest to the cities,” he says, “and now [it’s] easier to find and listen to the sound of birds singing in cages than in nature.”
That's sad:( :( :( :(
That's sad:( :( :( :(
That's awful!!! Those poor
That's awful!!! Those poor birds!!! Why can't people just go out into nature and listen to them there?
@ Everyone
SUPER SAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :( :( :( :( :( :( the bird is kinda cute. :)
Sad
Ik porter why don’t they go outside those poor birds look squished. And selling them :(
People that do this kind of
People that do this kind of stuff are the scum of the earth. Poaching is definitely my one of the worst crimes someone can commit.
Wow the typo's are horrible
Wow the typo's are horrible there lol! Sorry
poor birdies
I bet they feel cramped in those curlers. And we thought being stuck at home because of corona was boring!
from us both
btw, what curriculum('s) r u all doing 4 school this year? our list is posted below: (it would b cool some of us were doing the same stuff! btw, we're homeschooled :)
Math: Teaching Textbooks
Language Arts: Learning Language Arts Through Literature
History: Sonlight Old World History
Science: Apologia Human Anatomy and Phisology
Sad
It’s sad that people would do that to beautiful creatures that should be free
@Above
I feel bad for the birds!! It is so sad! I think Porter E is right. Just go outside!! And what I don't get is how they can do those illegal contests in a city park without being caught!!!!!! How is that possible!!!????!!
That's absolutely ridiculous.
That's absolutely ridiculous. How could people do that?!
How dare they
How dare they
cruel
just cruel
This is so sad...
Poor birds...I love birds and they deserve better than that.
this is Mylee
i feel so sad for those birds. 5,000 dollars is alot. I agree Porter E, just listen to them out side. E Y I agree that is alot worse than being stuck at home.
POOR BIRDIES
All I have to say is: IN HAIR CURLERS! That is so wrong. I hear Parrots outside my window right now. I agree that just going outside would be kinder to the birds.
That's terrrible
That's terrrible
Marvin S
That’s so sad, they probably didn’t have any food : (
If that's how people treat
If that's how people treat birds, imagine how people are treating other people! This is a cruel world...
That's terrible!
It's wrong to smuggle finches! Please let them go, people!
WHY ON EARTH WOULD PEOPLE SMUGGLE CUTE LITTLE BIRDS?????
It's not fair for the birds they can't breathe, can't move, and cramped up!!!