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Guyana birdsong competitions flourish amid oil boom

  By DÁNICA COTO
  April 23, 2023 GMT

  https://apnews.com/article/guyana-birdsong-competitions-race
  ____________________________________________________________
  ____________________________________________________________
  ____________________________________________________________

  METEN-MEER-ZORG, Guyana (AP) — The judges leaned in, hands clasped
  behind their backs.

  Everyone grew quiet as they stared at the two tiny black birds flitting
  before them, wondering which one would break the silence.

  “One. Two,” a judge called out softly as the bird on the right erupted
  into tinkly chirps. It then abruptly stopped as the bird in the cage
  next to it darted about before bursting into song, only to be surpassed
  seconds later by his foe, which spread its wings and tail in
  anticipated triumph.

  These are Guyana’s speed-singing contests — a centuries-old tradition
  where male finches are placed in cages next to each other as judges
  count the number of chirps they emit in the span of five minutes. It’s
  a hobby and business that rakes in thousands of dollars and is expected
  to grow into an even bigger gambling operation given the recent massive
  oil discovery off the coast of this small South American country, whose
  economy is expected to grow by an average annual rate of 25% in
  upcoming years.

  The races are held every Sunday across the country, with men gathering
  along roadsides at dawn with their caged birds and local beer to
  celebrate or mourn afterward.
  [66]

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  “God. Family. Birds. That’s my life,” said Olwayn Lynch, a 46-year-old
  transportation business owner.

  The races are closely scrutinized given the money involved, so people
  record them for replay in case someone feels a judge counted too many
  or too little chirps and demands a recount.

  Full Coverage: [67]Photography

  There’s also big money in selling these finches: Average singers go for
  around $75, while winners can cost up to $10,000. The demand for these
  birds is so high that [68]they are often smuggled to places like New
  York, where the Guyanese diaspora also organizes races. Smugglers have
  tucked finches into hair curlers, toilet paper rolls, pantyhose and
  other items. Some even wear special pants to carry them through airport
  security.

  Demand in Guyana has grown even higher since oil production began in
  2019, with more people competing, said Ben Winston, 59, who sells
  bundles of wild grass seeds at the events.

  “More people, more bets, more fun,” he said, adding that he has seen
  his business grow about 2% and hopes it will become even more
  profitable as the oil wealth flows, creating more jobs and expendable
  income.

  In the weeks leading up to a race, owners care for their birds like
  professional athletes, giving them vitamins, calcium and wild seeds
  mixed with honey. If they are molting, the birds don’t compete because
  their energy levels plummet when shedding feathers. The races also are
  not for birds that are easily excitable or get shy in front of a crowd.
  The winning bird has poise, bravado and grit. They don’t sing for
  pleasure or because they’re happy: they sing to defend their territory
  or attract mates.

  Sunday’s race attracted a smaller crowd than usual given the heavy
  skies and recent rains. Among those attending but not competing was
  Ryan Boodhoo, a 42-year-old importer and contractor, who felt the birds
  present were not as competitive as he would like.

  Boodhoo estimates he has won more than 1,000 races since he began
  participating 25 years ago: “For me, it’s not just competing. It’s like
  my therapy.”

  He recalled how at 6 years old, he stole someone’s bird from the
  roadside, mesmerized by its song. Hours later, his aunt forced him to
  return it and punished him by rubbing a spicy ointment in his eyes, but
  his love for birds remained. He now has more than 40 distributed
  between his home and those of friends.

  “The tone that the bird makes is sweet. It’s very comforting to my
  ears,” he said.

  When the birds are not competing against each other on Sundays, they
  accompany owners in their daily lives: perched in street market stalls,
  nestled in the passenger seat of taxi cabs or hung in wooden boats that
  cross the long Demerara River just west of the capital of Georgetown.

  “I like the whistling. It keeps me company,” said Trevor Fort, 55, who
  sells face masks and do-rags at Georgetown’s bustling Stabroek Market,
  where his bird recently chirped above the cacophony of car horns,
  reggae music and vendors hawking their wares like auctioneers as the
  sweet smell of ganja wafted into the heady air.

  Fort was gifted his first bird at 8 years old and caught his first one
  at age 13 after spending up to three hours “in the bushes just hiding
  and waiting until we see the bird done come.”

  Like many, he mixed sugar with a bit of sticky tree sap and placed it
  on a stick to lure the bird. Others use nets, breed them in captivity
  or buy from street market vendors who purchase them from Amerindians
  who catch the birds in Guyana’s remote interior or people who smuggle
  them in from neighboring Venezuela.

  By age 15, Fort was entering competitions. He has since dropped out of
  races to attend church on Sundays, but he cares for his 10 birds as if
  they were still in competition mode.

  Like other owners, he’ll play them downloaded recordings of other birds
  singing for up to four hours a day, making sure to first cover their
  cages with a light cotton material so they can focus on the melody
  without distractions.

  “It’s like training a baby. It’s going to listen to what you say,” he
  said.

  The best singer is the large-billed seed finch, Sporophila
  crassirostris, known locally as a “twa-twa” and considered expensive
  and rare. The second-best singer is the chestnut-bellied seed finch,
  Sporophila angolensis, or “towa-towa.” There’s also the plumbeous
  seedeater, Sporophila plumbea, or “mountain canary,” which is cheaper
  and as a result, more available, according to a December 2018 bird
  trafficking report by Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network. For
  local birders, the premier chirp is the one that sounds like
  “pee-peeow.”

  While Guyana’s Wildlife Division allows people to legally trade the
  three birds with an annual cap of 200 per species, local authorities
  “maintain a lenient acceptance of local bird markets,” the report
  stated, noting that bird races have generated an “unsustainable demand”
  for the best singers.

  “Trapped almost to extinction in Guyana and Suriname, they go
  completely unnoticed in other Amazon countries,” the report said of the
  birds. “As the population that usually buys these birds is in the
  low-income sector, these species make for cheap presents and continue
  the customary practice of keeping of birds in homes and backyards.”

  Some birds are sold at Stabroek Market, where Paul Lall, 72, sat in a
  dark corner stall reading a newspaper on a recent morning while birds
  in cages hovered above him and cockroaches scurried beneath his feet as
  he waited for customers. He has sold birds for more than 50 years, and
  said owners take good care of them because they’re considered pets.

  And the better you treat them, the better they sing, Lall said, noting
  that people also take the birds on walks or hire people to do so.

  The races and sales of birds are a boon for those struggling to get by
  in this country of some 800,000 people, of which an estimated one-third
  live in poverty. Orin Bradford, a 30-year-old minibus driver, said he
  sells his birds only if his bank account shrinks.

  “Birds are business!” he said with a wide smile, showing a sliver of a
  gold tooth. “Sometimes when the funds are low, we use them to rise back
  up.”

  While songbirds are hugely popular in Guyana, not everyone is a fan.

  For years, Henry Ochore, 35, has tried to persuade his friends to
  release their finches to no avail until he convinced one last week.

  “I don’t like them caged up,” he said. “It’s not good.”

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