Indonesia - Yogyakarta Bird Market

Another major attraction on the Yogyakarta tourist trail is the bird market. It's a place full of crazy, weird bird for sale, all sorts of local interest and a fair amount of bird poo. There's also bunny rabbits.


The bird market is a few blocks away from the carriage museum. After being told by a few people that it was either closed in the mornings or destroyed by an earthquake, I eventually found it. It wasn't that hard to find, but I imagine if I had of asked for directions to a batik shop, I would have had a lot more help!

The market is as about as Indonesian as you can get. At the front of the market, are food sellers. They sell all the usual Indonesian road side treats, as well as quite a few raw ingredients. This soon peters out and you're into the heart of the bird market.


The first part is dedicated to singing birds. They all sit in tiny, tiny cages. There were some amazingly coloured birds, as well as some with some stupendously long beaks, weird feathers and funny colours. It was a real mash up of critters. In other countries, they would all be in separate cages, with lots of room to fly about. In Indonesia though, they're crammed in a cage only slightly bigger than the bird itself.

After the song birds, are the pretty birds. I guess that's a good enough description. They're pretty and don't sing so much. I had to laugh when I saw a cage full of Java Sparrows. I had some as pets when I was little. I had no idea Java was an actual place but that, but here I was, on the island of Java with a cage full of Java Sparrows. Cool.

At the back of the market, is where the real money is at. This is where the pigeons are sold. Apparently, the Indonesians love their homing pigeons and will play quite a steep price for them. There was cage after cage of pigeons. They were a lot better looked after than the singing birds. I saw some people take one out of the cage very gentle. They then pushed and prodded all the joints, fluffed its feathers, then gentle put it back in the cage.

Despite the charm of all the birds, I couldn't help but think I was deep in the heart of H5N1 bird flu territory. If someone was going to be carrying the mutation that would wipe out the world, it would start here with the pigeon lovers! I made sure I didn't come too close to any of the critters and didn't stay longer than absolutely necessary.


There were also other creatures besides birds for sale. There was one alley which had rabbits. They were all sitting on top of their wire cages. I'm not sure why there weren't running away. I suspect they were either tied to the top or had their legs broken. I also wondered if they were being sold as pets or food. They were very cute though!

After wandering through the hot, stinky, poo flavoured market, I'd had more than enough sight seeing for one day. I eventually managed to find a taxi and get the hell out of there. I really couldn't recommend any of the attractions I saw in Yogyakarta. I might have just been having a grumpy day, but I couldn't get the hell out of there quick enough!