Jakarta

Near Jakarta, entire rows of houses are reserved for the nest-building birds.

The streets of Tangerang, a suburb of Jakarta, are empty. Yet, it’s not a ghost town, for although no people live here, thousands of swallows do. Indonesians of Chinese origin have gutted 500 of the three-storey houses and added small niches to them so that the swallows can build their nests. Swallow’s nests are among the most expensive delicatessens in Chinese restaurants. The yellowish soup cooked with the nests consists mainly of the birds’ saliva and is popular not only for its flavour, but for the healing effects it is said to posses.

“Unfortunately, swallows can’t be bred”, says Sugi, who owns five such concrete buildings. “They have to choose where they will build their nests.” For this purpose, the Chinese have converted their houses into swallow bunkers with small holes through which the birds can fly in and out. The shrill birdcalls on the streets are not just from the birds; some are broadcast from tapes to attract the swallows. “But even that doesn’t always work. Swallows are demanding,” Sugi explains. Nest thieves have become a real scourge. To prevent theft some nest dealers have begun leasing the ground floors of the buildings. “I don’t even hear them anymore”, says Novi, who moved into a swallow bunker seven years ago with her family. “The birds are peaceful and don’t bother us.” She doesn’t mind living in a neighbourhood where swallows outnumber humans.

The nests are “harvested” only two to three times each year, says Sugi. He gets about 12 to 15 million rupees (100-120 euros) for one kilogramme of the nests. “But, we don’t remove the nests until the young birds have learned to fly.” At the end of the day, the Chinese-Indonesian wants them to return and build their own tasty nests.