Kalimantan Enjoys an Edible Housing Boom
Kalimantan Enjoys an Edible Housing Boom
A freshly harvested bird’s nest collected from a cave of swiftlets. Indonesia’s bird’s nest industry generated $226 million in 2009. (AFP Photo)
Along the spine-jarring road that runs through Sukadana on the South China Sea, in between the sparse, water-logged shacks of corrugated aluminum and wood, tall, colorful buildings have begun to sprout.
They tower over their low-slung surroundings with dollhouse facades, colored in baby blues, sunshine yellows and ruby reds.
Sukadana, a small coastal city in West Kalimantan, is in the midst of a building boom. But the new houses are not for people. They are giant birdhouses that play an all-day siren call through booming speakers to a small bird that makes edible nests that — at almost $2,200 a kilogram — produce a broth that is highly prized, and highly priced, in China.
‘’They actually look nicer than a lot of the real houses,” said Andrew Teixeira de Sousa, field director for the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, which is active in the nearby Gunung Palung National Park. “But that’s just because there’s a lot more money going into those buildings.”
The bird — called, appropriately enough, the edible-nest swiftlet — makes its nest by regurgitating long strands of sticky saliva onto the wall of a cave or house, as the case may be. These strands harden into a woven cup that provides a cradle for their young that hangs from the bare wall.
Many Chinese believe that these hardened cups, when married with broth, bestow special health benefits. Some Web sites claim the nests can help fight disease, aid blood flow, strengthen the body, moisturize the skin and even help mothers recover their youthful figures more rapidly after childbirth.
The edible bird’s nest has been in Indonesia for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the advent of the CD player that the boom really took off, said Lim Chan Koon, a senior lecturer at the University of Malaysia and co-author of “The Swiftlets of Borneo.”
Before then, people would venture into caves to gather the nests. “People just let the birds stay or did nothing to improve the roosting areas,” Lim said. But that changed in recent decades. “Some wise guy thought of using playback of the swiftlets’ vocalization to lure them into purposely built structures imitating the cave-like environment.”
Once enticed inside, the swiftlets encounter an environment designed to keep them regurgitating comfortably. Small openings in the rear of the building allow them access but keep predators out. A series of air holes allows air to circulate but keeps crosswinds to a whisper.
There are large bird feeders, and open-faced water tanks provide bathing and drinking water. Misters hooked to a thermostat keep the temperatures inside cool despite the blistering daytime heat.
A medium-size three-story swiftlet house can reportedly cost up to $16,000 — a prohibitive sum for many in this impoverished area. Still, the houses are going up.
New York Times
Along the spine-jarring road that runs through Sukadana on the South China Sea, in between the sparse, water-logged shacks of corrugated aluminum and wood, tall, colorful buildings have begun to sprout.
They tower over their low-slung surroundings with dollhouse facades, colored in baby blues, sunshine yellows and ruby reds.
Sukadana, a small coastal city in West Kalimantan, is in the midst of a building boom. But the new houses are not for people. They are giant birdhouses that play an all-day siren call through booming speakers to a small bird that makes edible nests that — at almost $2,200 a kilogram — produce a broth that is highly prized, and highly priced, in China.
‘’They actually look nicer than a lot of the real houses,” said Andrew Teixeira de Sousa, field director for the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, which is active in the nearby Gunung Palung National Park. “But that’s just because there’s a lot more money going into those buildings.”
The bird — called, appropriately enough, the edible-nest swiftlet — makes its nest by regurgitating long strands of sticky saliva onto the wall of a cave or house, as the case may be. These strands harden into a woven cup that provides a cradle for their young that hangs from the bare wall.
Many Chinese believe that these hardened cups, when married with broth, bestow special health benefits. Some Web sites claim the nests can help fight disease, aid blood flow, strengthen the body, moisturize the skin and even help mothers recover their youthful figures more rapidly after childbirth.
The edible bird’s nest has been in Indonesia for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the advent of the CD player that the boom really took off, said Lim Chan Koon, a senior lecturer at the University of Malaysia and co-author of “The Swiftlets of Borneo.”
Before then, people would venture into caves to gather the nests. “People just let the birds stay or did nothing to improve the roosting areas,” Lim said. But that changed in recent decades. “Some wise guy thought of using playback of the swiftlets’ vocalization to lure them into purposely built structures imitating the cave-like environment.”
Once enticed inside, the swiftlets encounter an environment designed to keep them regurgitating comfortably. Small openings in the rear of the building allow them access but keep predators out. A series of air holes allows air to circulate but keeps crosswinds to a whisper.
There are large bird feeders, and open-faced water tanks provide bathing and drinking water. Misters hooked to a thermostat keep the temperatures inside cool despite the blistering daytime heat.
A medium-size three-story swiftlet house can reportedly cost up to $16,000 — a prohibitive sum for many in this impoverished area. Still, the houses are going up.
New York Times
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