Birds Build Nest Eggs for Thai Investors

PAK PANANG, Thailand —  The real estate market may be slumping elsewhere in Thailand, but it’s flying high in this small, sleepy town -- thanks to the birds.

Enterprising residents are building “bird condos” and converting old buildings to accommodate and pamper flocks of swiftlets whose edible nests are proving to be a gold mine for investors.

Although nobody is quite sure why these sparrow-like birds are homing in on Pak Panang, building owners try to keep them coming, adding inducements such as proper temperature, favored feed and even hi-fi systems playing swiftlet songs.

“It’s just a matter of luck. There’s no other way to explain this. We’ve seen many times that they flocked into one building and ignored the very next one with the same environment,” said Chainarong Sawasdeenarunath, the town mayor.

Once happily settled, the swiftlets fashion cup-shaped nests for their offspring from glutinous saliva. For centuries, the Chinese have regarded the nests, often served in a soup, as a delicacy with purported medicinal qualities.

The difficulty of collecting the nests, which are normally found in remote caves, and their scarcity have driven up prices.

Locals say a pound of bird’s nests, which cost about $14 three decades ago, now fetches up to $830. The price can be three times higher in Hong Kong, a major importer of a product that some believe can do everything from cure cancer to increase sex drive.

The Forestry Department says the area around Pak Panang, 370 miles south of Bangkok, the capital, is prime ground for swiftlets because it’s close to Thailand’s biggest wetlands.

The district’s 20,000 humans have benefited from tourists attracted by the novelty of seeing birds by the tens of thousands blanketing the sky.

“We’re planning to turn one road into Swiftlet Street to handle tourists more systematically,” Chainarong said.

Despite the bird droppings, noise and danger of bird-borne diseases, townspeople see the swiftlets as messengers of hope as Thailand strives to recover from the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

The town already has more than 100 bird homes, half of them jointly owned by investors from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia. But only about 30 are currently occupied, despite the various lures.

The municipality continues to approve applications for more “bird condos” -- bare, empty structures punctured on all sides by small holes that serve as entrances for the avian residents.

Once a colony settles in, only trained nest collectors are allowed inside because swiftlets are easily disturbed. Collectors must have a soft touch and tread, and their clothes and bodies should not exude strong odors.

The nests are removed before the birds can lay eggs. This is done at the start of three consecutive egg-laying periods. During the fourth season, the nests are left untouched so that eggs can be laid and hatched.

Suthi Noppakun, 75, said the nestings started about 40 years ago in a storeroom on the top floor of a three-story combination shop and house owned by a merchant.

Today, each condo can yield more than 100 pounds of nests a month, he says.

Suthi said the income has enabled him to buy a house in Bangkok.

Even millionaires like Bunkit Leelertphan can’t help salivating over the profits.

“I can’t see any reason why I shouldn’t jump up on the bandwagon. The Hong Kong and American markets are getting bigger. The Chinese market is even more robust,” said Bunkit, whose company produces a popular herbal toothpaste.

Last year, Bunkit paid $52,870 -- an exceptionally high price for real estate in provincial Thailand -- for a small plot of land to build a five-story building.

Three months after construction began, the birds started coming in.

“All I do now is just wait for them to pack the place while putting final touches on the condo,” he says with a grin.