There are several bird markets that available in Surabaya city. One of those is Pasar Burung Bratang/Bratang Bird Market, which located in Bratang area. This bird market seems built in around late of 70's or early of 80's. I just visited this place first time in the end of 1983. At that time, the building looks still in good condition, I thought like it is been built in just couple years ago, still seems like a new building to me.
In early of 80's, when I used to go to this place, I've seen the front yard, that was the parking area today, used to be a place for hanging the birds. I was not sure, was that for the competition or exhibition or just for exercise. The steel pipe frame is set on that place with a small diameter of bamboo webbing/plait and a number is painted in there, functioned as points to hang the birds. Some birds as common popular birds to be exhibited that time were Chinese Hwamei or Melodious Laughingthrush (
Leucodioptron canorum, formerly
Garrulax canorus)Black-faced Laughingthrush/Poksay [
Garrulax Affinis], Straw-Headed Bulbul/Cucak Rawa [
Pycnototus Zeylanicus] and White-rumped Shama [
Copsychus Malabaricus].
At the time I used to go to this bird market is the best time for some imported birds such as: Black-faced Laughingthrush/Poksay, Melodious Laughingthrush/Hwa Mei, Yellow Rumped Serins/Black Throated Canary, Gray Singing Finch, Kinds of Canaries, Red-billed Leiothrix/Pekin Robin, etc. It was so easy to get those bird kinds in the market, a thing that very opposite in conditions today, which those birds are very rare and no more imported birds available in the market.
Today, this bird market is still provides many kinds of bird, but the transaction is very minimum in number, also in values. Most of them are now also selling cages, in varies kind and type, in case to help their income, daily income, while they can not sells too many birds every month. This condition was caused by some issues and problems. One of those problems was the condition that not everyone is dealing or buying birds in the birds market. A lot of them are buying/trading the birds in the house [to house], on the birds exhibition or during birds championship, even trading via the internet, so this condition will kills the business in the birds market automatically.
The Bratang Birds Market's condition today was very needs concern. The building is getting poorer, the painting is more and more paler, the place is dirty, the electrical installation requires re-new, the floor tiles are cracks everywhere, dirt and needs to be replaced. The walls, as you could see in the pictures on above, is very dirty, stained by paints, and also gets rotted.
If you want to get the best quality of painted, hand painted or sprayed paint, cages in East of Java area or even in Indonesia in my opinion, this place is the right one. Some shops in Bratang are producing, in place, best cages, especially hand painted cages. Some shops which selling and producing painted cages also doesn't produces the cages in place, but they have another workshop and do the painting works in there. I have been in many birds markets in different places and different cities, been visited many shops that selling the cages for birds, and I have proven that I could not find better place than in here in order to get best quality of painted cages.
You can see in the both pictures on above, their main and major traded items were the cages. Some cages are still in raw material,ready to be set & finishes shall be applied, some of those cages were ready to be sold as seen in those pictures on above.
This is the next travel to the bird market in the out side of Java Island, where I can get a little bit time to spent on it, during my waiting time before attending the Iron Maiden Concert in Bali in early of this year. It is placed in Sanglah, Denpasar, the Capital City of Bali Province.
The place is very nice, clean and tidy. There are 2 roads for Entrance and exit, where in the end of the Block is located a "Pura", a temple of Hindu religion. So, whether you are going to the bird market, if would like to, you may have a nice view also to the temple. Isn't it looks great, man ...
A lot of typical simple cages, mass product of factories, made from plastic coated wires in very interesting shape and colorful are available in there. Absolutely cages made from wooden and bamboo also available. Accessories are offered in so many varies, from feeding bowl, perches, water sprayer, even the aquariums and its equipment also provided.
We can see a box cage full of Javan Myna (Acridotheres Javanicus) in the picture above, a very beautiful kind of Myna of Java. This kind is still have big population in its nature, so, not so many breeders wants to breed this kind until to date, in addition that the price of this kind is cheap. There is a big gap, in the price, between this Myna compare to other mynas, such as Asian Pied Starling (Sturnus contra), Bali Myna (Leucopsar rothschildi) , Black-Winged Starling (Sturnus melanopterus), which their price at the local market are very high due to their population in nature and availability in the market that very minimum and rare, beside the regulation in trading it, and this is the reason why the breeders are very interesting to breed it.
You can see in the pictures, there were some other pets available in there such as small monkeys, squirrel, even there were some big bats :-O what a mess ..... what's wrong with those guys anyway?
