Thousands of birds come from all over Southeast Asia, mainly from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of birds will take part in the competition, with the most popular bird being the Red-Whiskered Bulbul.

The birds are kept in ornate bamboo and wooden cages draped with elaborate and colourful cloths. When the competition begins, the cages are hoisted onto hooks suspended around three meters high on the metal grid. The competition consists of 4 rounds, each bird will have to sing at least 3 times to continue to the inner ring, and each time is about 20 to 25 seconds apart.

The timekeeper stands on a platform with his equipment: a whistle, a microphone, a large clear glass jar filled with water, and an ornamental tin bowl with a hole in the bottom of it. When he lets the tin bowl go, the bowl gradually fills with water and sinks. Just when it touches the bottom of the jar, the whistle goes off and the judges listen to two birds apiece, indicating the number of times each bird sings by holding out fingers.

The judges award points to the birds’ songs based on pitch, melody and volume and prize money can be up to one million baht.

According to thephuketnews.com, asianitinerary.com and dailymail.co.uk