Hong Kong Bird Market

While Wes and I were living in Hong Kong, we spent most of our time on Hong Kong Island - that is where we lived, where I worked and where Wes went to school. We would often take Saturday trips to Kowloon, on the other side of Victoria Harbor, for shopping or just a little walking tour. One of our favorite places to visit, and to bring friends who came to see us, was the Bird Market. Because of the tiny apartments that most people in Hong Kong have, there is not a lot of room for pets. So, birds are a very popular pet for people to keep. The men at the market showed how much they loved their birds by bringing them out for a walk in small cages and often talking to them. It was not uncommon to see groups of men together with their pet birds, just passing the time on the weekend while the birds got some fresh air. The markets sold all kinds of birds, cages, and accessories. They even had live crickets to feed the larger birds. This picture is of one of the cages of birds waiting to be purchased. I felt like the one bird in the middle was looking at me as the calm in the middle of a hive of bird activity.