This one’s for the birds: Bird call contest boosts conservation awareness in HK

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Nearly 100 contestants packed a lecture hall to cackle, hoot, warble and caw to save Hong Kong’s birds.

PHOTO: AFP

HONG KONG – The chirping of birds echoed through a packed lecture hall in Hong Kong, though there wasn’t a feather in sight.

Residents, some pressing the sides of their throats or contorting their bodies, imitated the rhythmic calls of the koel, brown fish owl and Asian barred owlet.

One donned elaborate headgear to mimic the yellow-crested cockatoo, a bird that is among the world’s most endangered species. About a tenth of the 1,200 to 2,000 left call the financial hub’s concrete canyons home.

Mr Bob Chan, who took top prize at the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society’s first-ever bird call contest on Saturday, chose the tiny Eurasian Tree Sparrow, another long-time urban dweller.

“I saw other contestants giving their all… and imitating very well,” he said admiringly of his nearly 100 fellow participants, each judged on their rhythm and tone.

One judge, Hong Kong-based ecologist and ornithologist Paul Leader, said he was thrilled the competition had gotten people like Mr Chan thinking about the birds they share the city with.

“If people don’t care about birds, how are you going to get them to protect them and conserve them?” he said.

“I’m just happy to see people who have a genuine interest in birds and wildlife. That’s a great start,” he said of the event aimed at raising ecological awareness.

Despite its relatively small size, more than 580 types of birds – about a third of