Relationship With Man
The nest used in bird's nest soup are composed almost entirely of saliva with little or no plant material. The soup is made by soaking and steaming the nests in water and is said to be an aphrodisiac and to have various medicinal qualities. The nests can fetch high prices and many colonies are harvested commercially.
Some populations such as those in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been harvested extensively leading to them being considered critically threatened under the IUCN criteria.
The use of artificial bird houses is growing. A detailed account of modern nest farming and marketing techniques is given by Jordan (2004). In Malaysia, "farming" of nests is performed in purpose-built structures or old empty houses with "tweeters" playing recordings of bird calls on the roof to attract swiftlets. In urban areas, such "bird houses" may be considered a nuisance by neighbours due to the loud bird calls and bird feces.
Read more about this topic: Edible-nest Swiftlet
Famous quotes containing the words relationship and/or man:
“In contrast with envy, which usually occurs between two people and is focused upon another person’s qualities or possessions, jealousy occurs when a third person becomes a threat to a dyad. Jealousy involves the loss or the impending loss of a relationship that one wants to hold onto, a relationship that is vital to personal fulfillment and claimed as one’s own.”
—Carol S. Becker (b. 1942)
“Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)