VietNamNet Bridge – Breeding eagles, which Vietnamese call the “king bird,” has become in fashion in HCM City. Eagles are listed as a rare and precious bird species, but they can be found easily at the markets in HCM City.

Breeding eagles, according to Tu, a “celebrity” among the eagle connoisseurs in HCM City, is a luxury hobby. “Eagles are brave and strong. Therefore, it can show off the high class of its owners,” Tu explained.

Tu, pointing to the two mighty eagles with bright eyes, sharp claws and beaks, said the king birds are very choosy in food, which forces breeders to spend much time and money to take care for them. An eagle eats VND40,000 worth of meat every day, which must be fresh lean meat with no fat. Eagles cannot eat frozen meat. They would suffer from diarrhea if they eat substandard or frozen meat.

An adult eagle can weigh 4-5 kilos. A young eagle, about one year old, can be sold for VND9-10 million, which is equal to one-month salary of a high income earner.

Training eagles to hunt is a great pleasure of the eagles’ owners. This is always a very costly and masterstroke work. Many of the eagles’ owners hire specialists to help train their eagles.

A young man was seen throwing a live tailorbird towards the eagle, and the eagle, as quick as lightening, rushed to the bird, grasped it, pecked the small bird with its sharp claws and beaks.

As easy as seeking to purchase eagles

An experienced bird dealer said in the past, the eagle sale and purchase took place in the open air on the February 3, 2013, in district 10. The eagle market gathered every day from 11 am to 1 pm. Sellers put the small eagles into cages and showed them to customers.

However, the market has been eliminated after the city’s relevant management agencies ran the campaigns, vowing to clear the wildlife trafficking. Therefore, the sellers nowadays do not display eagles on the market, but only provide birds to familiar dealers.

The pet shops could be the distributors of young eagles. These include the bird shops on the Thuan Kieu Plaza side in district 5.

The owner of a bird shop cast an inquisitive look at the visitors who asked to buy eagles. After five minutes, a woman, 40, led the guests to another bird shop, where a young eagle was seen in a small cage, which was lying together with many other bird cages.

The woman said the 9-month old eagle would be sold at no less than VND7 million.

There were many other eagles at the shops, but they were very young, just one or two week old. The eagles were offered to sell at VND750,000-1 million, depending on their health situations.

T, the real owner of the eagle shop, showed the guests a catalogue with the images of eagles for choice. Customers would place orders after seeing the images in the catalogues, pay deposit money and would get deliveries within 15 days.

T affirmed that her “products” all are strong and in good condition, because the birds were caught in the Central Highlands provinces.

People can also place orders on online markets. In general, sellers not only sell eagles, but also commit to “transfer technology” of breeding and training birds.

Kham Pha