Under Cover: Orange-bellied Leafbirds as Pets in Nongriat Village, Meghalaya

On 25th May 2019, while trekking from the village of Tyrna to Nongriat in the East Khasi hills of Meghalaya, we spotted a partially covered birdcage outside a house near the famous living-root bridge. A closer look through the camera revealed an agitated male orange-bellied leafbird (Chloropsis hardwickii) fluttering from end to end. As we walked a little further, we chanced upon the owner of the house, who casually remarked that it was a pet.

Leafbirds are small, attractive songbirds native to the Indian sub-continent and South-East Asia. Popular in pet markets and songbird competitions, they are commonly traded in many cities of South-East Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

In India, while hunting of leafbirds is well-documented, especially in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, there are fewer records of these birds in domestic pet-keeping. However, in a survey of frogs conducted in Cherrapunjee in 2004, investigators Hillaljyoti Singha and M. Firoz Ahmed, observed orange-bellied leafbirds, ashy bulbuls and black bulbuls kept as caged birds, in several Khasi households.

In fact, during the same trek we had spotted another such birdcage with a male orange-bellied leafbird, upon reaching the village of Nongriat, thus prompting speculation on whether such domestic wild-bird keeping is incidental or if there is organized trade in caged birds in this region.

References

1. Aiyadurai, A. (2011). Bird hunting in Mishmi Hills of Arunachal Pradesh, north-eastern India.
2. Choudhury, A.U. (2001). Some bird records from Nagaland, northeast India.
3. Chng, S.C., Guciano, M., & Eaton, J.A. (2016). In the market for extinction: Sukahaji, Bandung, Java, Indonesia.
4. Chng, S.C., Shepherd, C.R., & Eaton, J.A. (2018). In the market for extinction: birds for sale at selected outlets in Sumatra.