Amazing Fretworks: Carving Bird Cages Pt. 2

Once again, a friend of mine invites me to visit his store, located in Bratang Bird Market, Surabaya, where he sells a lot of high quality product of fretwork/carved bird cages. He would like to show me some new bird cages, just arrived from Solo, Jepara's Carving Artist products. The first one is a cage with carving that tells a story about war in Chinese ancient history. Well finished in very colorful and feels too bright for me. Very eye catching Cage.
The second picture is showing the cage, carved with a story tells about the legend of 8 [Chinese] gods. The carving itself is very good, better than the first one, but it has different carves style. The texture is fine, not too many bass-relief/bulge as it appears in the previous cage in the first picture. It is carved in a plain thin wooden material, opposite to the first one. The colors for the finishing works also softer, better color according to my opinion.
The next one is a cage, round shape and the size is bigger than the previous cages size. This size is designated for White-Rumped Shama [Copsycus Malabaricus], which has long tail or also can be used for Straw-Headed Bulbul [Pycnonotus Zeylanicus]. It carves shows no story but theme about the feline family; the lion, tiger, and their kind. The carving quality is fair enough, as fair as its natural finishes.
I like this simplicity theme. But in regards to its weight, I consider that in daily basis usage, it is not wise to use this cage. It will softly damage your nerve and muscular. It is too heavy to be simply lifted, even for a sturdy one. :-) The picture is showing the crown only and the full picture of the cage is available in the next picture.
Last but not least, the last one is a funny cage. Its carving theme is about a cartoon or comic, named 'One Piece'. This cartoon character was ever been a favorite one of my daughter. Anyway, this cage is not my favorite. Just for fun.

Early Days

I have been introduced to care birds since I was a kid by my grand father, indirectly. He had several birds of pigeon kinds, such as: Spotted Dove [Streptopelia chinensis], Eurasian Collared Dove [Streptopelia Decaocto].
My own real 'career' in ornithology was started when I was in elementary school that time, by caring some pigeons/doves, buying some munias and weavers from 'mobile' birds seller, which using bicycle he brings a lot of munias and weavers. Some of those munias were stained by water base colors, pretty weird and he thinks it's funny for the kids. I don't think so. It was very stupid.
Couple years later, I was in junior high school, and this time was the beginning of my real ornithology session. I started to buy Black Headed Bulbul/Kutilang [Pycnototus Aurigaster], Yellow Vented Bulbul/Terucuk [Pycnototus Goavier], Straw-Headed Bulbul/Cucak Rawa [Pycnototus Zeylanicus] and by the time goes by, I went into other kind, such as White-rumped Shama/Murai Batu [Copsychus Malabaricus], Oriental Magpie Robin/Kacer [Copsycus Saularis], Pied Bushchat/Decu [Saxicola caprata], Black-naped Oriole/Kepodang [Oriolus chinensis], Black-faced Laughingthrush/Poksay [Garrulax Affinis], Streaked Laughingthrush/Samho [Garrulax lineatus], Asian Pied Starling/Jalak Uret [Gracupica Contra], Common Fiscal/Cendet [Lanius Collaris], etc. Some of the birds I bought in Kupang Bird Market, some of them I got from Bratang Bird Market and the rest I took from some birds sellers in some places around in Surabaya.
This picture is showing some of my collections in 1985, when I lived in Surabaya. Start from the left in the picture, inside the yellow small cage is my first 'Cendet', a Common Fiscal [Lanius Collaris], which is very stern, as I could remember. It seems always bite the hands close to it. The next one, in the middle, in the natural/brown cage, is 'Murai Batu', the White Rumped Shama [Copsychus Malabaricus]. This Shama is the smaller kind, its origin is Java. It has smaller size, shorter tail and shallower black feather in the neck. Its songs also not as good as its close 'cousin' which came from Malaya [Sumatra or Malaysia]. In Java, they used to called it 'Larwo', instead of 'Murai Batu' name. This kind, in Java, also already rare in the market or in the collector's hand and I think it was extinct by huge exploration during 80's to 90's era. The last one, first from the right, in the white cage, is the White Rumped Shama, a bigger kind, which come from Sumatra.
This 'Larwo' is very aggressive bird, it sings very often and very loud, since the dawn till the sun is set. It had good enough song any some variances, that was as I remembered. I got it from a bird seller who had a bird shop and he is a bird foods seller also, a small kiosk in Jalan Sumatra, Surabaya, a street side kiosk. Today, the kiosk is already swapped by local govt as they have planned to clean the city and try to make the city looks clean, neat and tidy in every place. Unfortunately, as they are the member of Copsychus family, they should be fed with Ant's Eggs or Crickets as they were the full Insects Consumers. This is the worst part, this dependence of high protein is making me always hunting for this bird food, which sometimes the availability in the market is unstable. I will takes time, effort and more money for this matter.

Amazing Fretworks: Carving Bird Cages

Couple days ago, I was informed by a friend of mine, he said that he had received new cages. They are just coming from the carver & fabricator, 'fresh from the oven'. He invite me to come and take a look at them. He knows that I am a fret-works lover. So, today I come and visit his shop in the bird market, located in the east part of town.In the mid of the day, I arrived, as I have called him before for appointment and to ensure that he is available at that time, and gladly he greets me. After a little bit chit chat, we started to talk about the stuffs. He presents it from a cage to other cage, explains the motif/theme of each cage.
I found an interesting one, a fine fret-work, carved cage that wears theme about 'Subali', one of the figures/character in 'Ramayana', a legend/story from India, also risen in the 'Hindu' religion. The story is written by Walmiki/Balmiki, a poet, which also risen as a poet in the story. This epic wrote the story about a kingdom 'Kosala' in India and also kingdom 'Alengka' in Ceylon, with intrigues and political acts contents. The story has simple line, easy for the reader's digest. I like the relief. It has finishes in colors, painted using air brush system. Full of colors ... Even the 'Batik', the original/traditional textile/costume in the relief also painted with the inscription style by freehand, a micro fretwork in painting.
Kwan Kong or Guan Yu, a Chinese legend, that telling the story about the Gods of War, also embedded in the cage's relief as seen in the next [second] picture. The finishes in natural color, close to the wood color, using the melamine or polyurethane clear coating for the final coat. The cage also equipped with a crown, wooden material base, that also fully engraved with small carving, with a same theme and character. The cage is column less, as the ductility and the strength of the cage are coming from the small bamboo bars only. The door also well decorated with fine fretwork, small carving with same theme and character also. The door's handle, the upper part also decorated. Small shape with fine craving are used as the locking system for the crown's hooks. It is a unique design for a cage.
The third picture is showing same type of cage as the previous one, a column less cage. The fret works is fine enough. The relief is telling about the legend of the 'Kilin' beast. This is also the Chinese story/legend, where the Barongsai tradition are started and arisen. Shortly, the story told, once upon a time, there was a monster arise in the village and destroy anything, no one could stop it. Suddenly, a beast, looks like a lion kind but it purely different, out of the blue and then fight the monster and successfully killed the monster. People named the beast as 'Kilin'. In the another day, a monster came up again and there was no Kilin to show up, so the people made the imitation of Kilin to drive the monster away. It was the beginning of the Barongsai tradition, which also has been introduced in Indonesia since hundreds years ago. Anyway, I really like this 'Kilin' theme.
The more detail in larger picture that showing the 'Kilin' pattern is available in the next picture on above. I like the cage's theme, but the cage's type, naturally I do not like the columns less kind. To me, carved columns in the cage is very beautiful. I also noted, almost all carving cages are very heavy and weighing the roof's bars and so the vertical bars, if it is columns less. So I think it is not clever to choose this type.
The picture in the left is a round shape cage. It wears same theme as the previous one, the 'Kilin' theme, but in round shape and also in different finishes type. This cage is using the color finishes, a very bright and eye catching color. This cage is addressed to be used for Love Bird, based on its dimension and shape. This cage is very tall. The base part, a horizontal round plate, is a very shiny black plain, so, think if I have this one, seems it is very sadly to say that the shiny one will be stained by the bird's waste .... hahaha.
This cage is my favorite cage. It has funny theme, the Cocks [male chicken. All about chickens. The carving style is looks like Balinese, but still seems Jepara in detail. Very fine fret work. The color is perfect, light brown, almost yellow, it is very natural color, as the wooden material it self. It has a lot of additional decorations, such as the corner stiffener, the crown, crown sides decorations, perches & food bowls accessories. All made in fine carves and so in same theme. It looks classy and has real good style.
The last picture is most simple one. The relief is not too small neither too detail. It is also not too heavy. But the fret works is still quiet good and so the finishes. The carves shows the 'Shio'. The Sheng xiao (Chinese: 生肖; pinyin: shēngxiào), better known in English as the Chinese Zodiac (Chinese: 中国十二生肖; pinyin: zhōngguó shí èr shēngxiào), is a scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year cycle. It has wide currency in several East Asian countries besides mainland China and Taiwan. The finishes in colorful paint.

Those cages are very fine art works, made by good carving artist, plus quiet good finishes applicator. So, in a long the stream of production & distribution, from the carver until ended in the cage seller, it had taken very much effort, cost and time for production, it is considerable that the price will be very expensive.

Asian Pied Starling's New Songs

This time I have to race a new Asian Pied Starling, 5 weeks old chick, because the previous one I have made before has been taken by a friend of mine. The previous one was 5 to 6 months old when it taken from me and equally I have race it since 5 weeks old. It has adopted the songs of Love Bird, Common Sparrow, Weaver, Black Headed Bulbul and its genuine songs & sounds.

I put it in the new light grey color bamboo cage, from Focus, a bird cage seller, which the dimension of the cage is wide enough for it. The cage quality is very good and it is very natural as the price I have paid for it, is more than fair, very high, compared to other same cages. The cage is as seen in the picture above. Neat, clean, seems very ductile and also durable.

I have planned to fill it with the songs of woodpecker, blue-crowned hanging parrot, love bird, weaver, sparrow [this one usually automatically will be duplicated as sparrows are around my house and often in daily basis come down into my back yard]. So, I am now ready and have procured those patron birds to be put close to this Asian Pied Starling. I planned to keep them close at least for 4 to 6 months ahead.

I bought the bird in Kupang Bird Market, in Surabaya. There are a lot of them in there, in a bird seller. Most of them are chicks, 4-6 weeks old and absolutely product of several bird farms. It is very difficult to find Asian Pied Starling in the wild, of course in the Java Forest. This bird kind already extinct in its natural habitat, Code Red in the list. It very lucky, because there are so many breeders has been successfully grew them in their farm's cages today, so now we could find it in the common bird market easily.

I ask the seller, how to select the male, what is the different, physically, while they are chicks. The seller explain a little bit and then I start to aim it. I choose one of them, which already could be independent, so I don't have to give hand feeding, and I choose the most tamed, friendly one and brave with human's hand.

It took about 3 days to tame and train it to move into the bathing cage every morning, while I can clean its cage. A little bit nervous, that was the first expression of the chick when I put it first time into the bathing cage. But as I have experienced before, many times I race the Asian Pied Starling since 5 weeks old, they were smart birds who can learn single thing we train, faster than any other bird. As you can see it in the picture on above, the bird is starting to adapt in the water, try to get water in the bottom of the cage.

After several weeks I keep and take care of the chick, I feel that the chick was a little bit too old for couple weeks. Means it should be younger if we want to form its sounds/songs. Seems the chick is already 7 weeks old, not 5 weeks as I have predicted [there is no reference available from the seller, neither the breeder, regarding the ages of the bird]. But I think positively, it still can learn and duplicate and make a good copy of other birds sound. I always expect that and wait for the prove. I will be patiently wait for the next several months ahead, until I can see and hear it sings its sounds.

Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot [Loriculus Galgulus] 'Srindit'

This one is my new collection. A Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot [Loriculus Galgulus] as Indonesian used to call it 'Srindit', a common name in the local markets. I have known this kind for a long time ago, but I have not had a chance to have one, since I don't like it's voice. But I think I have changed my mind, now I'm trying to keep it for the voice/sound purpose, as I would like to race an Asian Pied Starling [Jalak Uret/Sturnus Contra - Prev., Now Gracupica Contra] Chick, one month old. I used to race it that way, since a month old chick, then keep it for about a year together with other birds, which I'd like their sounds/songs to be imitated and embed it into this starling. I have successfully done it for many times. The last one I made, have been taken by a friend of mine, so I decide to make a brand new one, but with another sounds/songs type, a true unique one.

Like other Hanging Parrots, this species roosts upside down and may also take a bath in the rain in the same position. I just did not realize this fact, before. So, when the first night it stays in my house, I seen it slept with upside down position and I tried to make it right by bothering it. But as many times I tried to correct its position, it still be back to the upside down position. And I gave up. Then, the next day I just found out this fact via internet, this bird used to be like this, always. Ha ha ha, what a funny bird.

The general knowledge profile of this bird can be seen in the following:

Species Profile
Genus:
Loriculus
Species:
Galgulus

Size:
12cm (4.7 in)
Adult Weight:
28g (1 oz)

Races including nominate:
one

Colourization Adult: Male-in general green plumage; dark blue patch on crown; orange/yellow wash on mantle; red rump and upper tail coverts; band across lower back yellow; red throat patch. Bill black. Eye dark brown. Female-minimal blue on crown and orange/yellow on mantle; red throat patch absent; yellow band on lower back absent.

Colourization Juvenile: As in adult female but with grey forehead washed with blue; blue on crown and orange/yellow on mantle absent; green rump with feathers margined red. Bill yellow/brown.

Call: Calls made in flight shrill and squeaky. Group calls rapidly repeated or ringing. While feeding notes are occasionally shrill and with two syllables.

I got this bird from a friend of mine. He explained to me how to keep it fit, the feeding and other general knowledge regarding this bird. I give the diet as he suggested, feeding it with half ripe corn, half ripe banana fruit, seeds [millet, canary seed, etc.], insect/ant's egg and off course the water for its drink.

Hopefully, it is a kind with a crowd sound and often sings, so the Starling will reproduce its song precisely later when it gets mature.

New Love Bird

Well, as have get bored with my previous love bird, the yellow peach face, I have to have a little bit refreshment. So I sell that yellow one to my friend in the bird market. Fortunately, the next day when I just drop by in another bird market, suddenly there was a man offered me some love birds. I accepted his offer as we have deal in the price. Then I took it home, gave it a better cage and better foods for it.
I will not describe its color, as you could see it in the picture on above. The bird looks so young and the bad thing is, it was in the molting period ... so absolutely I just could not be often hear its songs. I have to wait until it finished its molting before I use it as a patron for the Asian Pied Starling [Jalak Uret/Sturnus Contra - Prev., Now Gracupica Contra] Chick. Its wings feathers ain't complete yet and some fine feathers looks started to grow. I also have found some small feathers in the bottom of the cage every morning.
The bird seems a little bit wild and this might needs several months to go to be tamed. It always seems afraid every time I put my hand into the cage, when I have to clean its cage.
The previous diet I found in its original cage was only couple kind of seeds; the millet and the canary seed. I tried to feed it with corn, immature maize, as an additional daily diet. At day one, it did not even touched it, but the next day, it had tried to take it. So, can be imagined what happened in the day after. Next time I am gonna try some vegetables kind, hopefully it also will like it. Varies of diet is very important to keep it in fit condition, to support it abilities in singing. It is a must in regards to its daily function as the patron bird, which have to sing for the whole day.
Many years ago, I have successfully created love birds with many variance songs, such as songs of prinias, asian pied starling, Sturnus Leucopsar Acridotheres, Alophoixus Bres, etc. But sometimes this condition would not be a permanent thing, when it hears the original sounds/songs of it kind too often, lets say: everyday, the song will be disappear in the end.

Leafbird/Cucak Hijau [Chloropsis aurifron]

Sci. name: Chloropsis aurifron
Family: Irenidae
Order: Passeriformes
Class: Aves
The Leafbirds are a small group of arboreal passerines found throughout tropical Asia. All are in the same genus Chloropsis so they are all closely related. Five species are fairly widespread in SE Asia/Greater Sundas; one is endemic to Sumatra, and two are endemic to the Philippines. Leafbirds tend to be various combinations of green, yellow, and sometimes a little blue, but perhaps the most attractive is the Gold-fronted Leafbird as seen on above, which can sometimes be found feeding on flowers.
Weight of Chloropsis aurifron ranges from 10-90 g, and has an average height of 15 cm (6 in), when measured from the top of the head to the tip of the tail and the bird is perched in an upright position. The length of the C. aurifron can range from 14 to 27 cm, or 5.5 to 11 inches long. The Golden-fronted leafbird is brightly colored, depicting vibrant colors of green, orange-yellow, black, blue, and turquoise. Males are pale green and the undersides are a lighter shade of green. The area from the forehead to the crowns center is an orange-yellow shade and the cheeks, throat and breast are black, and the chin a deep blue. The bend of the wing has a turquoise-blue patch of color. Females are not colored as vibrantly as the males. Chloropsis aurifrons are long, with relatively short round wings. The legs and toes of the leafbird are short, sturdy and strong. The bill of the leafbird is slender with an upper mandible that has a slight downward curved, and encloses the spiked tongue that enables them to easily feed on nectar. The plumage of the leafbird is rather dense and fluffy. Although not much is known about the physical differences between sexes and ages, the juveniles tend to resemble the females. Leafbirds are distinguished uniquely by the vibrant colored plumage that they display.
Chloropsis aurifron is primarily distributed throughout southeast Asia. The leafbird is found in different environments, ranging from forests to dry scrubs, although it is primarily a tree dweller and seldom touches the ground.
Chloropsis aurifrons are arboreal eaters. They are strong, long-lived birds that are very aggressive. Cocks are more aggressive than the hens. Females seem to get along with other birds, but the males are aggressive towards other birds including other male and female conspecifics. The Golden-fronted leafbird is also known to sing melodic songs with a cheerful whistle. Not much is known about the courtship behavior, but it seems to be rather excited, primarily consisting of chasing and screeching between the male and female. Its known that the male tend to hang upside down under the hen on the same twig. While little is known about the social behavior of C. aurifron, it is known that they will flock with several different species of birds.
The diet of the C. aurifron consists primarily of nectar, insects, and fruits such as guava, berries and figs. There is very little known about the reproduction and growth of C. aurifron. After the eggs are layed, the care of the egg is shared equally between the male and female. They rotate turns incubating the eggs until they are hatched. There are approximately 2-4 eggs per clutch. Eggs are usually gray with a cream or pink ground color and speckled or lined with a brown or red-brown color. After approximately 14-15 days of incubation, the eggs will hatch. Hatchlings are rather small and develop slowly for the first 3-4 days. The chicks open their eyes at about six days, and leave the nest after about 13 days. Chloropsis aurifron is not an endangered species. It is a popular cage bird, but does require open space and many branches to maneuver on. These technical data are taken from Honolulu zoo site.

This Picture is taken couple days ago. It is my new favorite collection, which I bought from a colleague. He told me that this bird is used to be a competition bird, as the previous owner of this bird get bored with it's songs, so he recommend me to take over it. Once I see it and hear it action, so I told my self that this is the perfect one.
The bird is already well tamed and copied a lot of other birds song. I have heard it sang the sound of Prinias [couples of sounds], Copsycus Saularis, Copsycus Malabaricus, Pycnototus Aurigaster, Pycnototus Goiavier, Parus Major, Passer Domesticus, Halcyon Cyanoventris, Alophoixus Bres, and some other birds sounds. Even it can also duplicates the sound of chickens and cat. What a bird ...

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Amazing Carved Cages from FOCUS

Well, this time I visit the birds market, Bratang, in purpose of buying a bathing cage, as the old one started to break, exposed by daily sunlight and wet by daily water spray. Straightly I go to my pal in there and ask him where I can find the cheapest one. He is the owner of a Bird Cage & accessories shop, named Focus, one of several cages shops in there. As I assisted by him, quickly I get a cheapest one from his friend in there.


I also found out that in his shop there are a lot of new relief carved cages just arrived. The cages are coming from the fabricator in Solo, the most famous city which producing quality cages.
The first picture, the cage he offered to me, I think I was a little bit interested to have it, has no columns and just depends on all its bamboo bars. The carvings shows a theme about a lot of naked girls, absolutely a very naughty mind from the carver. The crown also carved in the same theme, in multilevel shape. Too bad, the carving or the relief result was not as good as the other cages, not too good in detail, especially this relief style is realistic shapes, which requires high standard of shape proportion and best in details. But anyway, this one still be a master piece in regards of the theme idea, which very unusual to be applied in a cage for bird. :-)

The second picture shows a round shape cage, seem the size is fit for the Orange Headed Thrush, Magpie Robin or Green Leaf Bird. The relief has theme, which telling the legend about 300 Gods [Chinese gods, legend from China]. The relief size is small and in good quality. The details were good. The finishes also looks good, shows the shape and the shades in between dark and light/bright. The crown, the door and the accessories [mounted for the perches] also carved in the same theme, this absolutely is a must that the whole cage should be carved in the same theme.

The third picture shows the same the theme as the previous one, about the multi gods but it is more detail as it is referred to how the seller call it: 500 Gods .... Whoa ... when I asked him to bring it in front of me as I wanna see it more closer so I can look the detail, so I just got the prove that it is absolutely has detail in its relief carves.

Birds Exhibition - 3

This time I was asked by a friend of mine to attend a Birds Exhibition, located in down town of Surabaya. The place is very comfortably, shady and leafy. It feels like in the country village side. The area is wide, as it is very difficult to find a best space in the city. There are several tents available, some tents are used for the Birds Paddocks, the rest are used for cafes. The area is the bigger space with a higher and bigger tent, surrounded by bamboo fence a meter high. Two ponds were located at the arena side. I asked to a guy in there for an info and I found out that there were fishes, so I think I can go fishing also during the waiting time. :-) This place used to be a place of a local bird club in here. The used to gather in here, do the 'exercise' for their birds in daily basis and on the weekly basis they make this event, the local area birds exhibition. The first picture shows the pre initial class for Orange Headed Thrush. The participant used to start the class by warming up their birds, by put their Orange Headed Thrushes uncovered on the plain floor, closely and dense. The birds will feel the provocation. So, in several minutes later, when the classes is started, they will fight hard by shows their dance style and best songs and sounds.
The second picture shows the initial class course. The participants are starting to hang their birds in each available hanger based on their ticket's number. The EO prepared several steel ladder chairs for stepping up. I was asked by my friend to bring one of my birds for this event, he insists to bring an Orange Headed Thrush. I said to him that I did not have time to spend a little bit more for caring them at these last months, nor the sun bathing in the morning, so I doubt this time we will win any class we parcipate. I see him has brought his White Rumped Shama, a new one, which he had bought last week. This time I see the participants who came to this event are not so much, but it is much better cos the place will not be felt too crowd to me.
The last picture shows the class of Orange Headed Thrush. When the birds is at its maximum effort, it dances like drunk, moving its body from the left to the right recurrently. They used to follow when someone is waving hand on to it. So, you can see in the picture that there is someone doing the hand waving, looked weird, try to instruct his bird to be more attractive. I feel fun when I am watching doing those weird acts ... hahaha. Anyway, everyone has their own way, their own method and their own style for going to be the best. And they have the right for doing that.

Orange Headed Thrush Imitating Sound

It is very common in Indonesia to create birds, mainly the birds for exhibition purpose, with unique sounds when it is singing. Especially the sounds comes from other 'in fashion' birds, as to date preferred sounds such as: love bird, prinia, woodpecker, sturnias, etc. Almost all birds used for the patron are has high frequency, screechy and loud sounds.
Today, there is only one Orange Headed Thrush ['Zoothera Citrina' - Punglor Merah] left in my list of collection. It still be patronized by those bird mates, to fill its varies sounds.
The first one, from left to right in this picture, is the Sturnus Contra [Jalak Uret], in the white cage. The second from the left is the Woodpecker, the small one [in Indonesia they used to call it Pelatuk Sampit, Sampit is one regency located in Kalimantan island]. The next is a Love Bird and the last one, at the right side, is the Weaver. This weaver should have Yellow color in its upper part of the head, but I think this one is the youngster, so it might have its yellow color few more years. The reason is, when I got this bird first time, it has no yellow color in its head, but after it got its first molting period is finished, a little bit yellow color was arose. So, I said to my self, well, I'll wait till couple years in caring it, till I can see its yellow color and prove that my theory is right. Those four patron birds seem good enough for filling the additional sounds produced by the Thrush.
I have believed as it have been proven, as a friend of mine had borrowed this Thrush for at least one year [last year], for exhibition purpose, when its molting period was came, I took this bird back to my home and taking care of it by my self until it reaches its optimum health after the molting period. When it started to sing again, I just found that there were a lot of new songs it produces. It had imitated the songs of birds which belong to my friend during he store it in his house.

Birds Exhibition/Championship - 2 [The Videos]

This is the video of the White Rumped Shama [Copsycus Malabaricus], the most noisy and prestige class in every birds exhibition. In order to instruct or attract the bird to sing, with all of their full abilities, all flown sounds variance, loudest sounds ever, the owner or the supporter of each bird usually makes unsual acts such as whistling loudly, clapping their hands, blowing whistle, and so many other weird things, in which way those acts surely becomes hindrance and obstacle, for then screw up the Juries works. But, believe it or not, it works ... the shamas has unique character, which the more noise they hear, the more fighting act and better sounds they produce.
The persons in the green uniform are the Juries, which examinating the class and the black uniform guy is the Juries Coordinator. This coordinator has specific task. He has to supervise and controling the Juries works. He also will reminds the Juries whenever there are birds that out of their sight or un-examinated, while it also gives its abilities during the class session.

Birds Exhibition/Championship - 1

This picture shows what is the birds exhibition or championship in Indonesia looks like. Seems the picture shows the class examination of Magpie Robin [Copsycus Saularis].This one is small scale or local exhibition, which arranged in weekly basis. They used to called it the 'Exercise'. It shows that the place is as is or using unused places, no further improvement and not specially designed for the birds exhibition purpose.
This time, it is using the unfinished construction  of a building, seems it is a warehouse, located in the down town of Surabaya. The building is a Spanwerk Steel Structure Portal Frame, Several bays - about 6 meters times 6 bays, with Zincalume Metal Sheet Roofing. The portal members are Wide Flange profiled steel, underneath the C Channel steel Purlins, jointing is using Bolts n Nuts, all finishes is green color prime coat paint. The Base is unfinished floor, made from compacted Granular Base materials and some waste removed building materials and finished by concrete leaning. No shell or perimeter wall is erected yet.
Under the roofing, they constructed a frame for hanging the bird cages. Straight under each cage, they put a can, on floor, where the Juries can plug their flag. The flag is a sign that this bird has been judged, examined and valued by a Jury. There were several groups of Birds in every Exhibition and some groups has couple or several classes, i.e. the Group for the Orange Headed Thrush has Class A, B and C. Each class shall has 6 Juries, so each bird will be judged or examined by 6 Juries and it means there will be 6 flags in different colors. Each class approximately takes about 10 to 20 minutes for completing the examination of the Juries, but it is also depending to the number of the birds and the difficulties to each kind of bird. So the time spent will be varies.
There is a place for registration. Each bird shall be registered first before joining the class. Pay the admin fee for the ticket, get the number of hook in a sticker and a form for put notes of result. In the bigger exhibition, with the more professional EO and bigger budget by several financiers/sponsorship, you may find some pretty girls, which serving this registration and ticket selling, this could be as we usually saw it in the cars exhibition. They put different rate to each class. The rate is basically refers to the kind of bird that being in style, which will be connected to enthusiasm/number of registrant. The funny thing is, the owner of the bird, most of them, like to support their bird with some acts, such as waving the cage cover, clapping, whistling, screaming, calling their bird [name or number] and makes some other noises and crowds. It is very highly unethically, as this will be a hindrance or obstacle for the jury in examination of the class. Some bid event gives more strict rule, which any act that will disturbs the jury's task is forbidden. There is a sanction for this.
Another funny thing is, the bird's owner gives different treatment to each bird for the purpose that the bird will give its full and maximum performance during the examination. Like the owner did in this picture, he took all the food, extra food and the drinking water bowl out of the cage just in couple minutes before the show. This will takes few minutes to hours for the treatment. But, anyway, they shall think and consider that only a little of them will be the winner. :-)
During the waiting time between or among the session of examination, the bird shall resting. There are several palce for this purpose. Some tents or paddocks are available. Some participants prefer to hang the cages in the trees near the arena, as they feel the place temperature under the tent was too hot for the bird and they sure that this will decrease the performance of their birds. As seen in the picture on above, the tents are exposured under the mid day sun ray and surely you can imagine how much the temperature inside the curtain covered cage, if the outside temperature is about 37 - 38 degrees celcius.
This last pictures is a class for the White Rumped Shama [Copsycus Malabaricus], the most noisy class. The security guard is seen, came from the Army Personnel, sit in the chair in the corner of the area. This is the last round. The jury usually gives, in average, three round for examinating the birds. First round is for the birds to give its acts and sings, the jury will put a flag, little one, into the can, then the basic value will be written in their form. Don't forget, each jury has their own flag's color. Second round is focused to the bird that still acting and singing, this time the jury will be more concerned to the several parameters of the judgement. These parameter are the acts, the sound volume, the sound variations, the tones, the tuning and some other variance. This round will increase the value, so each best performance shown will be an added value written. The last round is the time for the juries to decide which one will be the winner. They will focus and concentrate to the prominent birds, evaluate and put the extra value to the best birds performance, by ticking the value or gives stars. The more stars the bird gets, the higher value it gets. Maximum stars they can get is three stars. Each jury also brings three big flags in three different different colors. Yellow color with C Font is represent one star and this is the third winner. The second winner is represented by green flag with the B font that should have 2 stars. The bird which has 3 stars in the examination will gets the red flag with the A font and this one is the Winner, the first winner.

Love Bird

See this one, a love bird of mine, it is a hybrid. Seems its parents were a green peach face crossed with red face yellow love bird. Its has yellowish overall feathers color, some green, blue and little bit red. White face and the body shape looks like the peach.

I put it in the metal bars cage, framed in the artist painted and engraved acrylic frame, as seen in the picture. The cage is heavy enough because of the mounted accessories, the acrylic. Plastic feed bowls and perch installed inside.

The painting in the cage is telling a Chinese story, seems it is about the legend of the 8 Gods [pak thian - I am not sure about this Chinese in spelling or writing]. A very good artist who painted this. The colorful picture with the good line for the detail. Some relief in engraving surrounding the picture.

This acrylic type of cage is becoming popular around year 2000 and only last for about 4 to 5 years in popularity after that. Some bird lovers had turned their back from this type. They have found out that this acrylic would not last longer when gets exposed in the sunlight in daily basis and for the long period. Some will be cracked and some will be uprooted as the glue could not hold no longer. I think it is the same problem worked on other material used for cages, if they are exposed under the sun. It is only a matter of mode or fashion cage, where they have a life time for any popularity.

Birds Bathing

Every bird needs to take a bath, just like other animals. There are 2 ways for birds in its nature/wild for taking bath, using water or using dust/sands. The function of each function is different. When they use water for bathing, they will cleans all the dirt. Continued with makes its feathers become neat by using beaks and also puts the wax from its rear body part on the feathers, to make it becomes waterproof, protect it from the rain. This also has function to create the warmer body condition at night, that's why sometimes they take bath in the afternoon.
When they take the sand or dust for bathing, it has function to remove the mites or lice to get away from their feathers. In the wild, in its nature, sometimes they come to an ants nest, the ants nest produced a gas, kind of Nitrogen, which will removes or kills the mites or lice, so they will bathing on that.

The sample of the bird when they are taking a bath can be seen in this short video clip:

In Indonesia, there were some methods of Bird's Lover in bathing their birds. Especially in using water media. Some of them use water sprayer and directly spray it on to the bird while the bird is in their cage. Some 'hi-tech' bird lover use bathing cage, as seen in the picture on above.

The image on above shows an Orange Headed Thrush - Zoothera Citrina moved from its cage get into the bathing cage for taking a morning bath, before exposed in the morning sun. The Round shape cage is made from bamboo material, made in Solo, Mid Java, bottom part is made from multiplex material, polyurethane finishes. The bathing cage is made from wooden fro the frame, bamboo bars and zink plate oil paint finishes for the water tray and all parts.
Another bathing cage type, used by Asian Pied Starling 8 weeks old Chick, as seen in the picture below, is made from Teak Wooden Frame, Natural Color Polyurethane Finishes, with Aluminum Bars. This one is better than the other one as seen in the picture on above, of course the price rate is higher.

When the bird has instructed to move from their cage and get into the bathing cage, the empty cage give an opportunity for the owner to take care of it. They can remove the waste in the bottom of cage, clean the cage, replace or add the food or drinking water. Those activities would not bothering the birds. Just compare it if the bird is still in the cage, the bird may get nerve.

The bathing cage can be made by some materials. Some cages uses wooden frame and bamboo bars, oil base finishes. Other bathing cage is made from teak wooden frame with natural color polyurethane finishes and aluminum bars, this one is more expensive in price. Limited cage uses all aluminum components. Seem this last one is too expensive and too hot when it exposed by sun rays, even this might be more durable.

This bathing cage has a aluminum or steel zink plate, shaped tray for water reservoir. An arched perch is installed crossing the tray, the middle part of the perch is sink in the water, so the bird still can feel the water in the foots/legs and get bathing if they did not want to get into the water in bottom of the tray.

Some bird lover also create a larger cage for bird to fly around a little bit, with metal sheet tray shaped in the bottom and filled with find grain sands for bird to take a sand bathing.

If you see the image below, you can see this Orange Headed Thrush is in the bathing cage, it jumps into the water and take a bath happily. It has been well trained since it was youngster chick, learned the instruction how to move from its cage and get into the bathing cage, and so the other opposite ways around.

In Indonesia, it is common to use this method, bird bathing using bathing cage. Usually they're doing it in the morning. Some of them used to expose the bird under the morning sun first before bathing, some other bird lovers used to put into bathing first and the morning sun exposing will be done after that.
Some bird lovers also believe that gives a bird the night bathing is helpful, to increase the ability of the bird for the competition purpose. Especially in singing ability, the action & sound and performance during the competition.

FOCUS - A Bird's Cages & Accessories Seller

I have visited a bird market, Bratang, in Surabaya couple days ago. I got little chit-chat with some sellers, which becoming good friends of mine since more than a decade ago. I have no aim to go there, I just miss them, and it is been so long I did not came to visit this bird market. I have been busy with the job I worked last year. Even my farm has to be disbanded or frozen for a while because of that.

This one is 'Focus', which specialize in providing quality bird cages, especially the artist made cage [with full relief carved all over] delivered from Solo or Jepara. Those places were famously branded as the best place that breeds so many carver or engraver artists since last age, after the Balinese. Their engraves products were well known better than any other places in Indonesia, more detail, smoother and much more raises 3D effect. Of course the finishes also has pure effect at the final stage.
In the store I can see some plain paint finished cages in many colors and I could see that those are surely high quality cages [ups, please consider that the price is always follows the quality ... isn't right? lol ...]

Some cages accessories also available and stored in the display cupboard. I could see cage curtain, hook/hangers, clipper, perch & socket, carved bit, etc. in there. Unfortunately I could not find a lot of engraved cages at this time, there were only several cages of that kind is available. When I asked why there is only limited commerce to the seller, he said the the order was booked but the products were not delivered yet, may in the next couple weeks it will transported from Solo. Hopefully I will have time and chance to capture some pictures of those cages later.

The seller was my colleague. I met him first time in 1999. He came to my farm that time, looking for a yellow rumped serins, lets called it 'black throat' chick, a cock one. He got a good one chick from me. Since that time, he was becoming a good friend of mine then. Usually I met him in Bratang bird market or when I go to the bird exhibition in Surabaya or Malang area, where he also put his commerce cages and accessories in the occasional bazaar. For several times I bought birds from him and he delivered it and also visited to my residence.

Cockatoo [Kakatua]

See this picture, it was my present new collection. A Small kind Cockatoo. Seem this bird is listed as forbidden for trading. I got this from a friend who's working as the security guard working in the building, where I am working. He found it in the concrete deck roofing in the top of the building. There was the chains in the leg, which already cut [looks like it had cut it perfectly by its strong beak]. Because of this friend of mine is not interested to take care of it, so he offered me to take care and I took his offer.
I have to buy a cage for it. It must be big and strong enough for it. So I go to a shop, buy a hexagonal Aluminum cage and the price is higher than I expected, but what else can I say, I still have to buy it.

First time it came, delivered to my home, there is only a free and available cage [for a love bird, usually] made from small steel wire, for it. Absolutely, it is only took one hour for its strong beak to freed it self by cut some bars. Fortunately, it didn't want to fly away. It was just perching on some other bird's cage and makes some damage on it.
It is a very smart bird and very crowd bird. Able to speak some words, maybe the previous owner have taught it very well. It is very noisy when it feels hungry, and always when I was late to feed it. Scream out some noisy words and sounds [very lucky it stored in the big house building, so it would not disturb the neighbors].

Fantastic, when it only needs couple hours to start some damages in its new aluminum cage, the aluminum sheet mattress. Then it started chewing its feeding bowl made of plastic. Maybe it needs something to keep the sharpness of its beaks, or keep the length of its beaks from growing. But the damage will apparently increased by the time it feels hungry. I have to give it something to be chewed then.

I am just looking for the sub species or kind of this cockatoo. With a full white color, as seen in the picture, a little bit pink in the chicks and crest, also some kind of yellowish in the back of tail. The body size is about 230 mm and totally about 350 mm from beak to tail. Where is its origin? I do not know yet. I try to find out later. At least I have to know something about it. If you already knew about it, please post your comment and just let know it.

Anyway, basically I did not really wanna have this bird. It is not my favorite one. I just try to know it well closely, how to take care of it, what is its habit, etc. Surely, someday someone will take over it, at the day I feel I already understood everything about it well. Or when I have no time for the bird no more.