Men gather around the weekend bird market

The Bac Ha Plateau, in the northwest, is a perfect tourist attraction, with its mountains and forests. Many visitors are lured by the local markets that display an arrangement of unique products,  Bac Ha Buffalo Market, Ban Pho Wine Market, the Brocade Market, Bac Ha Love Market. Also there is the Bac Ha Bird Market.

This market, only open on Sunday, has an array of various kinds of birds. The sounds in this market are quite attractive, but the detriment to the local ecosystem bellies this beauty.

Groups of men can regularly be seen gathering around bird cages, hung on peach or plum branches, discussing the value of birds, based on their appearance and sound.

Most of the birds here have been caught from the surrounding forest and then tamed. Their owners/sellers take care that they are remain healthy-looking, colourful and have a pleasant sound in order to retain their value.

This is because the price of the birds depends on their appearance and their song. They can be sold from anywhere between VND 200,000 to tens of millions VND. The most sought-after is the nightingale, because of their song.

One salesman, named Leo Seo Lin, divulged that hunting requires knowing the habits of each type of bird.

“Nightingales usually live in couples on separate hills,” he explained. “They often fight to defend their territory from invaders, so hunters regularly use birds of prey as decoys to ensnare them."

Bird hunting can bring in a large amount of money, so the number of hunters is increasing. Valuable birds such as nightingale are becoming more and more rare in the wild.

An experienced hunter, Vang Senh from Ban Lien Commune, said that they are having to go farther into the forests to catch their prey, and that it usually takes a week or so to trap enough of the birds to return to sell them.

For local people, this simply means less birdsong during their day.