A bird in Hong Kong’s famous bird market has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus. So yesterday the government yesterday closed the market for three weeks. All of the birds housed in the stall with the contaminated bird will be put to death.
It seems like only yesterday that Tom and I walked through this market on our first day in Hong Kong. Tom took some beautiful photos of the market I’d like to share here. To start, this is one of my favorites:
I was so tempted to buy a little cockatiel cage to take home for the kids, but then wondered where in the world I’d hang it in our cluttered house. I also like this photo. Notice the hanging cages off to the left, including one with a cover to protect the bird inside from the elements (on that day it was overcast, hot, and humid).
The market sells a wide variety of birds. Here’s a toucan.
And some lovely gray birds.
A couple varieties of green.
And finally a cage filled with colorful birds, perhaps a little too close for comfort.
No matter, it’s sad the market will be closed for the next few weeks. But better safe than sorry.
It’s popular here, in fact the owner of the DVD store I usually go to keeps his birds in the shop with him – I was driven mad the other week, thought I was hearing things… he had the cage under the shelves, and the birds were making these strange little noises….
But you often see people wandering down the street with caged birds, on their way somewhere, and there’s usually one or two balconies on each block with cages hanging in them.
The big thing here now though is pigeons. Balconies converted to lofts full of the things.
There’s a guy who wanders around downstairs between the buildings calling his birds, it’s just surreal.
But it’s not something I’d consider.
Maybe people just can’t get enough parasites from songbirds?
Yikes! Pigeons are scary, although I used to eat them in Hong Kong. I don’t remember seeing pet birds in China, but that was so long ago. No one had pet dogs there at the time, but I know that’s changed, too.
Oh, yes, pets are back – nothing says “I am firmly middle class” than dragging some over-coiffured mutt around on a glorified bit of string, so it can crap at random on the footpath and inconvenience passers-by….
Mind you, if your dog goes missing ’round these parts, best not to go looking for it too hard – remember those hungry looking kids you paraded past earlier, flaunting your wealth and status to?
Well, dog meat keeps out the cold quite well it seems.
I’m not a big fan of keeping caged birds, and the ones I’ve seen locally never look happy.
Come to think of it, even the owners never look really happy….
I think it’s considered good luck to carry birds around in cages in Hong Kong. I’ve seen older men in Singapore with their birds in cages. There’s a special park in Singapore where people can hang their birdcages and sit down for a long cup or two of tea. Has this taken off in China?