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.
Bob Chan, who took top prize at the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society’s first-ever birdcall contest on Saturday (Aug 23), chose the tiny Eurasian Tree Sparrow, another longtime 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.
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