The Stolen Songs: An Indonesian Plight [Documentary Treatment]
Azina bte Abdul Nizar
Feb 2
4 min read
In a rural part of Jakarta, Indonesia, there is a songbird competition being held. There are
many cages holding songbirds hanging on the ceiling of a large canopy. There are about four judges, holding clipboards and papers and walking about, assessing these birds that sing loudly. About 50 feet away, the owners are lined up, pushing their way to the front. Their expressions are tense, and they are coated in beads of sweat. Their hands are holding onto the railing and they heave their upper body forward while roaring with profanities.
There are about 1000 of these competitions held each year to present these birds for show
and win prizes. Majority of these birds are captured from the wild, while some are bred in
captivity. These birds are being rapidly stolen from the wild for their songs and forced to
perform for competitions with rigor pre-trainings. This has stripped the eco-system of this birds making this species closer to extinction.
Amongst the competitors, Mr Andika Asa a 40-year-old is announced as the winner of the
competition. He is presented a $430 prize that he holds in one hand while holding his bird, a
murai batu, on the other.
He goes home and there, we can see the living room packed with trophies, medals, cages
and bird-care related equipment. He hangs his 20-foot bird cage on a pole on his ceiling and
hits the cage with a metal stick. This is a way to train the bird to fly laps and build its stamina.
The bird, struck with fear and panic, flies in circles. He then, forces the bird to sing, as it will
perform better under duress. He leads us to where most of these competitors buy their birds.
The ‘Bengkulu bird market’, where such birds are sold, is filled with many shops where birds
are caged and put out on display. The shops are filled with songbirds that are thrusting their
bodies against the cages from one corner to another. The birds appear timorous and are
trapped between the constricted metal wires of the cages, with nothing but a wooden stick for them to perch on.
The shops are overflowing with people. Mr Andika mentions how he had bought his bird from ‘Mr Ismad’ (50). Mr Ismad appears lethargic and has a scrawny physique.
Mr Ismad has been working in this industry for about 20 years. He mentions how the cost of
the birds range from RP300000 to millions depending on the bird’s song quality and how it is
very hard and expensive to breed them. Many of the birds sold in these shops are captured
illegally, from the wild, stripping these birds from the eco-system.
(Archival footage: The Government included Songbirds under “Protected species” but the
censure from public led to the decision being revoked.)
The Sumatran Jungle boasts its lush green trees where songbirds are flying about and chirping blissfully. One of the birds fly to a branch that is coated with glue’ and perches on it. Then, it frantically attempts to pull itself off the branch and flaps its wings hysterically. Its efforts are futile as the bird's feet are stuck to the branch and it cannot escape. It chirps loudly. It isncaptured by Mr Afrizal.
Mr. Afrizal has smuggled over 200,000 songbirds across 15 years and has seen increasing
sales in recent years. Many of these birds end up living awful lives, solely to be coerced into
performing and are stripped of their freedom. He says how he does feel guilty but illegal
poaching is cheaper than captive breeding and hence, it has become very common.
The birds are being put into cages carefully by the team of poachers. The birds let out
strangled cries in trepidation as they are transferred to the metal boundaries of the cages.
In a competition, many are screaming loudly. There, Marison Guciano watches the caged
birds with deploring eyes. He is the founder and executive director of the bird protection
organization Flight. He says that more than 20 million of these birds are stolen annually from
Sumatra alone, and that smuggling of songbirds is massive and open.
The film closes showing birds in the cages appearing lifeless. They are filled with despair,
sleeping due to fatigue or flying in a frenzy. Mr Guciano says how birdkeeping is only to satisfy the owners and nothing else. On-screen text: “Will we let these birds vanish forever, never to be heard again?”
The documentary 24-minutes long, shot in HD and has scripted narration. It talks about how
songbirds are captured for their songs and entered into competitions. The film highlights how the species is headed towards extinction. There will be on-screen texts, archival footage, voice-over interviews and on-screen narration by characters. The overall mood of the film is tense and melancholic.
Works Cited
Gokkon, Basten. “In Protecting Songbirds, Indonesia Ruffles Owners & Breeders'
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