Spreading birdsong and cheer

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Birdman Chia Eng Seng, 82, places his pet songbirds in the verdant atrium of Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay hotel every morning.

Birdsong soon fills the sky-lit 21-storey atrium, heightening the sense that this is an indoor forest implanted in the refurbished hotel in Raffles Boulevard.

The man behind this urban enchantment has trundled up to world-class hotels in his van for over a quarter-century, uplifting visitors with musical birds, especially so in a prolonged pandemic.

"I think I have made hotel guests happy for many years," he acknowledges. "They always smile and sometimes they ask questions."

He is mostly unsung, however.

Often unseen, the retired tailor and bird hobbyist arrives before 8am, seven days a week, gently hoisting six warblers atop poles in different corners.

One bird chirps and trills outside Peach Blossoms, a Cantonese restaurant, replicating the yum cha tradition of diners savouring dim sum and birdsong.

At 3pm, Mr Chia transports his prized Red-whiskered Bulbul and Common Shama birds back to his four-room Hougang flat, where he keeps 16 birds on a breezy balcony.

He rotates his little flock every day to give them rest and a change of scenery. "They are like children who like new experiences," he reveals, speaking a mix of English and Mandarin.

Once, a guest released a bird, which flew to all corners of the hotel and might have starved to death.

Mr Chia simply brought in a female bird and the male escapee, poised on a soaring sculpture, returned safely to his hands.

Surveillance cameras showed that the culprit was a Caucasian guest, who perhaps wanted to free a caged bird, and had already checked out.

Mr Chia says if he had encountered the guest, he would explain: "If the bird flies out to the open, it will not know how to feed itself. Or it will be attacked because birds have clear territories. Even sparrows will fight it off. Birds are like gangsters of the past."

Having been a birdkeeper since boyhood, he has many anecdotes, from catching birds near Old Airport Road to how the bird-singing subculture brings together tycoons and trishaw riders in Singapore.

He has fond memories, too, of his first songbird contract.

He began with Raffles Hotel in 1994, when he placed 10 birds in its garden for two years. "Japanese tourists came by the busload. Indonesian medical tourists staying there became friends. They gave me coffee and sea cucumber."

Over time, Mr Chia, who is so dedicated to his pets that he rarely travels, has met tourists from all over. The world shows up at his door, which he opens to reveal an iconic slice of Singapore.

He has also supplied birds to Clarke Quay and to the Mandarin Orchard and Marina Mandarin hotels, for the sum of $2,000 to $3,000 a month. The Marina Mandarin was rebranded recently as a Parkroyal Collection luxury property after a $45-million transformation.

He has organised and judged bird-singing contests islandwide, including at Jurong Bird Park, for over 40 years.

While he thinks there are some "show-offs" and "cheats", he loves that the bird-loving community is a melting pot.

"Rich men with Mercedes-Benz cars and men on trishaws drink coffee and talk about birds. It's very friendly," he says. The subculture also unites young and old and includes women.

The veteran thinks Tiong Bahru appeals to tourists, but is a small enclave that accommodates only about 100 birds. The best heartland places for this Singaporean pastime are Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio, he recommends.

Though birdkeeping is a passionate pursuit, he has decided not to be enamoured of any of his pets. Each bird is numbered rather than named. Otherwise, he will be sad when it dies, he says. Their lifespan is about 20 years.

Neither does he show favouritism. "Whether they are good or bad singers, I give the same food."

Being frugal, he prepares his own bird feed from a mix of dog and cat food, eggs and dried insects.

Birds are sensitive, he adds. When his van nears home, the birds inside start singing. So do his birds at home, to welcome him back even before he arrives, says his wife, 86, a retired seamstress.

He lives a quiet life with her. They have two sons in their 50s, who work in banking and engineering, and four grandchildren. But his progeny seem to prefer dogs to birds.

Meanwhile, during the pandemic, his birds have become quieter.

He shares another little-known tidbit. "We have been at home for more than a year, so they don't sing so happily now. In a garden, they will sing with other birds."

Birds prefer some noise, he says, and it is now quieter at the hotel without international travellers.

But he likes the transformed hotel, with its gorgeous indoor garden for his feathered friends. And so the elderly birdman and the plush refurbished hotel are a harmonious picture of old and new Singapore.

 

Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.

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