Visiting Satria Bird Market

The old city of Denpasar has a unique spot you can visit called Satria Bird Market. Satria is the name of the area as in the past, it was belong to Puri Satria or Satria Kingdom.

The area is called Satria as it belongs to Satria Kingdom in the past.

The market open every day from around 9 to 5. As the name implies, there are a lof of birds for sale in this market. There were also some other animals that people can buy for pets.

Entrance to the Satria Bird Market.

It was morning when I parked my motorcycle underneath a shady tree in the corner of the market. The market was just opening. The shop keepers were opening their shops. Some of them bring birds in cages outside their shop. Some dusting off bird cages in their shop.

A seller was washing bird cage.

Sweeping the floor, the seller just opened his shop.

Birds were taken outside in the sun to have a bath.

I left the parking area and walked to the market. I saw a man squatting in front of small bird cages. They were at least 50 little birds in separate bird cages. I looked closer to see what the man was doing. He was feeding the birds.

The man was squatting as he fed the birds one by one.

There were many birds in different cages.

After getting his permission, I took photos of the birds. They looked colorful and beautiful. I was trying hard to focus my camera lens to the birds as this is not easy because mine was only point and shoot camera. Or maybe I should learn to use this camera better. Any how, here are my photos of the birds.

Little birds in cage.
Little birds in another cage.
Sleepy bird.
The blue birds

After saying thanks, I continue walking around the market. It was only a small market, but the market was here since long long time ago. I saw many other animals beside birds. There were iguana, hamster, koi fish, dogs, monkeys, turtle, crickets (crickets were not for pet, but they are great lunch for the birds) and cats.

A monitor lizard for pet.

Another lizard, another cute one.

Crickets.

Some people started arriving in the market. They haggle over price of some birds. Soon some birds would get their new homes. Some people were very crazy about birds. They have birds as their pets because they enjoyed listening to their sound.

There are singing bird competition regularly held in Bali and in Java. The birds who have the best sound would win a lot of cash. And this will cause the price of the bird increase. One bird can cause USD 5000 if they win such competition. Sound crazy?

My Javanese friend told me, the life of a Javanese man is considered complete or successful in life when he has a bird. Well, to be exact, when a man has a house, a wife, a chariot, a weapon and a bird. A bird can upgrade a man status in society. So, he told me.

The temple in the market where the Balinese Hindu sellers pray everyday before opening their shops

A photo from inside one of the shop.

After about an hour, I finished my short trip to the bird market. You see, I did not buy any bird, I was just there for admiring the birds and taking photo of them.