原文标题：
Songbird competitions
Avian idol
Indonesians know why the caged bird sings
Songbird competitions are a popular pastime in Indonesia
Owners win prizes and socialise, but their hobby is endangering the birds
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Some men spend their weekends watching football. Imam Safi’i and his mates spend theirs watching songbirds warble. Hundreds of songbird contests take place across Indonesia every year. On most weekends Mr Imam and his friends attend duels in Jakarta, the capital, rooting for their pet crooners. The birds are assessed by referees who grade the complexity and range of their melodies, as well as their stamina and posture as they flit around their cages.
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Owning a champion bird is not just a matter of pride. Winners receive televisions, motorcycles, cars and cash prizes of hundreds or thousands of dollars. Over the past four year Ethes, Mr Imam’s stone magpie, has racked up scores of trophies and enriched his owner by some 15m rupiah ($1,000)—half the average annual wage. Mr Imam attributes his bird’s success to love, care and good nutrition. Looking after songbirds, he says, is like looking after children.
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Indonesians have come to regard songbirds as a “social and financial asset”, writes Paul Jepson of the University of Oxford, and competitions as an opportunity to network. They also provide an excuse to hang out with buddies. Tournaments are “boisterous” and a “great time”, says Mr Imam, especially when Ethes is not competing. Watching songbirds challenge each other in a kind of Avian Idol “relieves our stress over the weekend”. Men from all walks of life participate—even Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, once entered his white-rumped shama in a competition.
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The people of Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, have kept songbirds, a symbol of Javanese knighthood, for centuries. But contests started to become common in the 1980s and 1990s, when enthusiasts began replacing imported zebra doves, whose vocalisations are fixed, with native passerines, which could be trained. This opened up the tournaments to anyone with the time and patience to coach their pets.
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Ownership of songbirds in Java has doubled over the past decade. There are between 66m and 84m birds in captivity on the island. Nearly a third of households keep them, according to a survey conducted in 2018. Breeders cannot keep up with demand, and in any case it is wild birds that are prized for their supposedly superior vocal cords. So many birds have been whisked from the forests of Indonesia that more than a dozen species are in danger of extinction.
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Traders are now ransacking Malaysia and Thailand, too. The Indonesian government is aware of the problem and forbids trade in protected species. In 2018 hundreds of birds, including songbirds, were added to that list. Yet traders exploit legal loopholes and patchy enforcement. As many as 1m birds were smuggled out of the forests of Sumatra, a big Indonesian island, in 2019, according to one estimate. Indonesia’s love of birdsong threatens the songbirds themselves.
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量约555左右）
原文出自：2022年5月28日《The Economist》Asia版块。
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理：Fei Min
本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】（来自于网络）
印尼鸟类歌唱比赛：养鸟成为一种越来越普及的大众文化，在印尼鸟类歌唱比赛越来越受欢迎，一场比赛能吸引500名鸟主，携带超过1700只鸣鸟前来参赛。由于比赛的奖金丰厚，许多鸟主因此靠比赛来赚取可观收入。不少驯鸟师也聚集在此，分享饲养经验。爪哇甚至有句谚语：一个男人只有在成家立业、驭马佩剑、有鸟为伴后才能算做是真正的男人。这带动鸟类交易相关市场，一些冠军鸟市值高达7万美元。多数参加歌唱比赛的鸟儿，都是野外捕捉的。
印尼境内生活着超过1600种鸟，该国因为鸟类贸易而受到威胁的鸟类也是世界上最多的。表面上看，印尼野生动物贸易法和野生动物保护法相当完善：未经允许不得捕获任何鸟类，未经允许不得运输或销售鸟类，否则将以违法行为论处。有一些鸟类被列入了印度尼西亚当地的保护名录，凡是受保护鸟类均禁止猎捕。专家们认为保护名录应该收录更多的鸟种，但这份名录自1990年创建后就再没更新了。但当地政府部门是否真正执行，还是个问题。印尼当局不能严格执行相关法规，禁止将野外捕获的鸟种作为圈养良种，一切就是空谈。
【重点句子】（3个）
Watching songbirds challenge each other in a kind of Avian Idol “relieves our stress over the weekend”.
看鸣鸟之间互相比拼就好像在看“鸟类达人秀”，“可以在周末缓解我们的压力。”
This opened up the tournaments to anyone with the time and patience to coach their pets.
这为所有有时间，有耐心训练鸣鸟的人敲开了比赛的大门。
Indonesia’s love of birdsong threatens the songbirds themselves.
印尼人对鸟鸣的喜爱威胁到了鸣鸟本身。
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