Birds telling your fortune in Singapore - Kebun Baru Birdsinging Club

Located at the foot of a hill, which is part of Ang Mo Kio Garden West, the Kebun Baru Birdsinging Club facility has a capacity to accommodate more than 1000 cages. On competition days, temporary tentage has to be erected to accept more cages. Every morning, sans rain, and as early as 6am, merbok or zebra doves are hoisted up 20ft high poles for training. They are hoisted up by a simple pulley system. These birds, with a greyish face and a pinkish brown body, are encouraged to sing when in the presence of many of their own kind. Although these birds are ground feeders, they are hoisted up so high in the open field because they like plenty of sunshine. When being transported, the cages are covered with a cloth to prevented the merbok from being frightened. The merbok field has a total of 426 poles. Under the shelter there are scores of hooks for cages in case of inclement weather. A short walk away, under shelters, there are cages of longtail shama or white-rumped shama. The shama is an expensive bird and may cost thousands of dollars depending on its quality. It is judged on its singing ability, tonal quality, stamina, liveliness, length of tail, beauty and frequent up-down movement of tail. "Birds can tell the fortune of us" is the serious believe of Chinese senior citizens. So we can see some of senior citizens group around here in a weekly basis. #naturalwonders#thingstodo