Thailand. Here we are back in the Andaman Sea looking at one of the many caves appearing in the limestone karsts. The caves are home to a bird species, of the swallow family, who builds its nests high inside the dark caves.
And somebody has to harvest the nests since they are highly prized by the Chinese for making bird nest soup. You can see one of the bird nest gatherers in the photo along with some of the bamboo scaffolding they use to climb up to the nests. This goes on my list of most unique jobs ever.
The nests are only woven by the male birds and made of bird saliva so in essence, bird nest soup is the same as eating steamed bird spit (yummy). But don’t cringe as bird nest soup is one of the most expensive animal products consumed by humans.
The gatherers live in the caves for up to a month at a time and most are heavily guarded to prevent theft. Luckily this guy appeared friendly as he waved at us. And on an interesting note, a synonym for gatherer is magpie, another bird friend who we know recognizes him/herself in the mirror. So the world comes full circle.