Trapping Birds with Sticky Tree Saps

Instead of using the bird cage to trap birds, besides trapping it with the snapping swing-up plant type, we also use sticky tree saps to trap. The prepared sticky tree sap is normally place around a stick and the stick is placed among the branches in the tree. When the bird land on the branch with the sticky tree sap, its feet will stick to the sticky tree sap and thus trapped the bird.

It needs special preparation and skills to prepare the combination of the sticky tree saps. We need some special made up ingredients (a few kinds of tree saps) to come up with the right sticky tree sap dough so that it is sticky enough to hold the birds, but not too sticky to our fingers (which needs to place the sticky tree sap on the stick). First of all, we need a small container and some lubricating oil (normally taken from motorcycle engine). We then walk into the bushes near the jungle to look for the various sticky tree saps. I can remember that there are about 5 kinds of tree saps to make the conducive sticky tree sap - to trap birds.

The specialist is 'Ajih Baroh'; together with 'Ajai', three of us would go from one tree (those identified) to another to cut the tree bark and extract the sap. I can only remember two of them. One is the traditional rubber tree and the other the 'Pokok Pulai' which has grown tall in "Pak Tam's" house. When we have them all, we mix them thoroughly and the end product is the sticky tree sap! Depending on the birds we caught trapped, either we slaughter, grilled them over small fire and eat them; or we would keep those birds in cages that we have built earlier.