What is Blood Birds Nest, secret unveiled

Hi there, if you have never come into contact with Blood Birds Nest before, youmust be wondering what’s all this fuss about Blood Birds Nest. What is Blood Birds Nest, really ? What is so great about Blood Birds Nest and why is it so expensive.  Well, Blood Birds Nest or to be more exact Blood Birds Nests are actually nests woven by the secreted saliva of certain swiftlet species during their breeding seasons. It is widely consumed as a health food due to its high beneficial effects to human health and has been considered to be one of the most precious food items by the Chinese for thousands of years.  It is frequently being referred to as the “Caviar of the East” because  it fetches a premium price and regarded as an esteemed food product in the East.

History of Blood Birds Nest

There were many versions on the history of Blood Birds Nest, but the mostadmiral cheng ho
interesting one attributed the discovery of Blood Birds Nest to Admiral Cheng Ho of the Ming Dynasty. According to the legend, Admiral Cheng Ho encountered a big thunderstorm during one of his sailing expedition across the south east asian sea during the 15th century. He and his subordinates were stranded on a malay island and they were seriously short of food supplies. In their search for food, they found these Blood Birds Nests stuck to the side of the cliffs. As they were desperately in need of food and nourishment, they boiled these Blood Birds Nests in water and consumed them to fill their stomachs.
After consuming these Blood Birds Nest for a while, Admiral Cheng Ho realized that the soldiers were getting more energized, and some sick soldiers were even recovering faster from their illness. Some even gained healthier complexions. Realizing the health benefits of these newly found Blood Birds Nests, Admiral Cheng Ho brought some back to present to the Emperor. Since then, Blood Birds Nest became a food delicacy in the palace, serving primarily the royal families. The emperor’s wife and concubines will especially consume Blood Birds Nest regularly to maintain their beauty and youthful looks.

What is Blood Birds Nest, secret unveiled

White-Nest Swiftlet and Black-Nest Swiftlet

Not all nests produced by swiftlets are edible. The nests of the white-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and the black-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus maximus) are constructed from the saliva of the swiftlets and these specifies actually produce the Blood Birds Nests. There are other swiftlet species that construct their nests largely out of vegetation such as grass, feather and mud and these nests necessarily do not have any commercial values. In Malaysia, the nests of the white-nest swiftlet and the black-nest swiftlet are heavily harvested.

White-Nest Swiftlet

The white-nest swiftlet is a small bird of the swift family which can be white-nest swiftletfound in South East Asia. Its nest is made of solidified saliva and is harvested and used to make Blood Birds Nest. It is roughly about 11 to 12 cm long and weighs 15 to 18 grams. The plumage is blackish-brown above, paler on the under parts. The rump is slightly paler than the rest of the upper parts. The tail is slightly forked and the wings are long and narrow. It’s bill and feet are black.

Black-Nest Swiftlet

The black-nest swiftlet also makes it’s nest from solidified saliva. black-nest swiftletIt shares a lot of similarities with the white-nest swiftlet except for a few differences. A white-nest swiftlet has shorter wings, a deeper tail-notch, and a darker underpart compared to its close homolog, black-nest swiftlet.

Swiftlet life cycles

The life cycles and of swiftlets and their behaviours in various habitat conditions have been observed and studied in detail over a long period of time. Swiftlets are known to be monogamous and breed with high nest site fidelity (Viruhpintu et al., 2002). Swiftlets start to breed roughly at the age of one-year-old (Nguyen, Quang & Voisin, 2002). However, the breeding cycle and the associated breeding activities such as the nest-building, egg laying, egg incubation and young rearing may vary across different species and geological regions. These variations could be influenced by climatic factors such as the amount of rainfall, air humidity, and food availability (Langham, 1980).
Generally speaking, the breeding cycle of a swiftlet species is approximately 92–120 days with a clutch size of two eggs (Langham, 1980; Lim et al., 2002; Viruhpintu et al., 2002). Black-nest swiftlet produces a single egg clutch with an approximate egg size of 16-25 mm; while white-nest swiftlet normally lays two eggs per clutch with approximate egg size of 10-15mm. The incubation and fledging periods for both white-nest swiftlet and black-nest swiftlet were 23±3 days and 43±6 days, respectively (Langham, 1980; Lim et al., 2002; Medway, 1962). Swiftlets breed throughout the year but mostly from October to February (Langham, 1980). Swiftlets take approximately 30-45 days to complete a single nest during the breeding season and about 60-80 days in non-breeding season (Aowphol, Voris, Feldheim, Harnyuttanakorn & Thirakhupt, 2008). According to Marcone (2005), nests are built almost exclusively by male swiftlets in approximately 35 days; however Lim et al (2002) reported that both male and female participate in the nest building.

Cave Blood Birds Nest versus House Blood Birds Nest

Edible-nest swiftlets are aerial insectivores, which take prey like flies on
the wing. They roost and breed in caves. During the day they leave the caves to forage for food, and return to roost at night. They are monogamous and both partners take part in caring for the nestlings. Males perform aerial displays to attract females and mating occurs at the nest. The breeding season overlaps the wet season, which corresponds to an increased insect population. Basically Blood Birds Nest may be categorised as cave Blood Birds Nest or house Blood Birds Nest based on the habitat of the swiftlet.
Cave Blood Birds Nest
The cave Blood Birds Nest comes from the natural habitat of the edible-nest swiftlets. Swiftlet breed naturally on limestone caves anNiah Caved clings to the surface of the walls and ceilings of these caves. From research studies, it was found that swiftlets construct their nests at different areas of the cave wall to avoid interspecific competition for nestling space, and both the black-nest swiftlets and white nest swiftlets select their nestling areas by unique characteristics and not randomly. It was also found that the white nest is commonly distributed at low altitude natural cave up to 1280 m highland while black-nest swiflet normally roosts from sea level to a height of 1830 m (Lim et al., 2002). Researchers speculated that the black-nest swiftlet is able to fly and live at higher altitude due to its larger body and larger wings.
Most edible swiftlets live in the tropical Indo-Pacific region and do not migrate. These birds usually remain in one cave or other roosting/nesting site. Examples of cave sites include the Niah Caves and Gunung Mulu National Park, which are both located in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.
The caves are also well known for the birds’ nest industry. They are also a popular tourist destination in Sarawak. Every section of the ceiling in the caves where there are birds roosting is privately owned and only the owner has the right to collect the nests. Collection is done half-yearly (usually in January and in June). The collector will climb up hundreds of feet on a single pole to the cave ceiling and scrapes off the nest in flickering candlelight.
House Blood Birds Nest
House Blood Birds Nests are basically Blood Birds Nest that are collected from Nesting Housethe man-made habitat of edible-nest swiftlets. With the escalation in demand for Blood Birds Nest, the natural sources of Blood Birds Nest from limestone caves have been supplanted since the late 1990s by purpose-built nesting houses.
In swiftlet farming industry, man created an artificial house that resembles the natural habitat for swiftlets to roost. Studies on swiftlet nesting behaviours in natural habitat provide important information to improve the breeding environment of swiftlet houses. Man-made swiftlet houses are cave-like environments that allow the swiftlets to construct nests. Swiftlet houses can be found all over Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand due to the active swiftlet farming industry of both white-nest and black-nest swiftlets. Generally, swiftlet houses are normally built close to the coast or far inland to create suitable conditions for swiftlet farming. Several elements such as light intensity, temperature, air velocity and humidity were controlled and optimised in order to replicate a suitable living environment for the swiftlets. The main entrance hole of a swiftlet house is usually designed near the top of the structure in order to avoid direct sunlight and to limit the light intensity of the structure (Sankaran, 2001). Normally, the building is constructed as a closed structure with only a limited number of ventilation holes. Air movement will cause evaporation to reduce the humidity level and air temperature inside the building. The temperature is controlled by the air ventilation while humidity is controlled by the installed humidifiers and the pools of water provided inside the structure. Temperature and humidity are important to ensure nestling success and produce good quality nests.
This has become an extraordinary industry, mainly based on a series of towns in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, which have been completely transformed by the activity.
From there the nests are mostly exported to the markets in Hong Kong, which has become the centre of the world trade, though most of the final consumers are from mainland China.

Introduction to Blood Birds Nest

Blood Birds Nest is one of the commonly use health-modulating foods in Chinese populations. In traditional Chinese medicine, Blood Birds Nest is known for its beneficial effects in treating several ailments including consumptive disease, tuberculosis, asthma, dry coughs, stomach ulcers, gastric troubles and bronchial disorders. Due to food and medicinal values, Blood Birds Nest is quite an expensive animal bioproduct, and has thus created lucrative industry in Southeast Asia. It is one of the main contributors of gross domestic product in several Southeast Asian Countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and others.

Blood Birds Nest is the dried saliva of swallows / swiftlets commonly found in the Southeaast Asian Countries e.g. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnamese. Swiftlets are tiny insectivorous birds that often keep on catching insects during flight from nearly first light until dark. Amongst the several swiftlet species in Collocalia genus, only the nests producted by Collocalia fuciphaga, Collocalia germannis, Collocalia maxima and Collocalia unicolor are commercially important due to their human consumptions.

Blood Birds Nest is called differently in different languages e.g. Yan Wo in Chinese, Sarang Wallet in Indonesian and Enso in Japanese. The saliva secreted from the sublingual salivary glands of swiftlets during nesting and breeding season is the main material used in building of the nests. Generally, the sublingual salivary glands of swiftlets increase in weight from 2.5 to 160mg, and reach their maximum secretory activity during nesting and breeding season. Nests are built using saliva as a cementing material for binding feathers and other vegetation together. It also ensures firm attachment to the vertical walls of inland or seaside caves.

Grading of Blood Birds Nest

The grading of EBNs is measured on account of their dry mass, the time spent by swiftlets in building nest, and finally the fat and protein content of hardened saliva. As an example, the white nests are almost entirely made from saliva, while the black ones are composed of almost 45-55% feathers and small dried leaves.
The bowl shaped Blood Birds Nest is the most popular one in the market compare to other shapes e.g. triangle (corner nest), broken pieces, etc.

History of Blood Birds Nest

The earliest history of Blood Birds Nest trade dates back to almost 1000 years ago in China, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). However, some researchers believe that the Blood Birds Nest trade can only be traced back to 1589 when Ming Dynasty ruled the ancient Chinese Empire. It is said that the Admiral Cheng Ho visited Southeast Asia and was given gift of Blood Birds Nest from Indonesia for the Ming Dynasty’s Emperor. This is assumed to be the initial stimulus for opening the trade of these valuable nests.
During the ancient Chinese civilization, only the families of the Emperor and his ministers were privileged with the right to consume the highly valued Blood Birds Nest. But, after the end of the monarchy system in China, the general population was introduced to Blood Birds Nest. Because of the delicious, nutritive and medicinal properties of Blood Birds Nest, its fame rose gradually and steadily among the general public.
Nowadays, Blood Birds Nest is reputed as one of the most popular delicacies among the Chinese communities. In addition to the consumption of Blood Birds Nest for health-promoting effects and nutritional components, most of the people consume it as mere delicious and nutritious food item.

Health Benefits and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

TCM has claimed a long time ago that Blood Birds Nest has highly encouraging effects for the cure and treatment of consumptive diseases, difficult breathing, dry coughs, alleviating asthma, tuberculosis, hemoptysis, asthenia, improving voice, stomach ulcers, relieving gastric troubles and general weakness of bronchial ailments. Besides, Blood Birds Nest is also famous for the proper and healthy nourishment of kidneys, heart, lungs and stomach. Additionally, it helps in raising libido, fortifying the immune system, promoting growth, improving concentration, improving skin complexion, slowing down the aging processes, increasing energy and metabolism, and regulating circulation.
The regular consumption of Blood Birds Nest has been associated with healthy effects such as high-spirited physical and mental strength, and youthfulness restoration. Proteins are the main ingredients of Blood Birds Nest. They are generally used for the building and repair of body cells and tissues, and driving other metabolic functions. Carbohydrates are another major ingredients of Blood Birds Nest. Sialic acid is one of the major carbohydrates found in Blood Birds Nest, which mediates the distribution and structure of gangliosides in brain. The essential trace elements such a calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, iodine and some essential amino acids are the other main and major ingredients in Blood Birds Nest.
In the view of these facts, Blood Birds Nest is highly nutritive and restorative food with sweet and calm character appropriate for consumption by all age groups of all genders. Recent studies have demonstrated Blood Birds Nest as a potent medicinal substrate with a wide range of medicinal properties including antiviral, anticancer, eye care, bone strength, neuroprotective and anti-oxidant effects. Besides, Blood Birds Nest has been found to potentiate the proliferation of HASCc. In addition, epidermal growth factor like activity has been documented for Blood Birds Nest in several experiments.
Although Blood Birds Nest has been traditionally prescribed to cure diseases for many generations the actual characteristics and properties of Blood Birds Nest have not been studied in detail.

Target Market

At present, the main target market for Blood Birds Nest is the Chinese community all over the world. However, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan stand out as the top consumers of this product followed by Singapore, U.S.A. and Middle East countries among others. Blood Birds Nest is regarded as an esteemed cuisine by upper class Chinese families and highly appreciated for its health benefits. At diners in expensive Hong Kong restaurants, each bowl of the highest quality Blood Birds Nest costs almost USD $30 – $100. There is a stable demand for Blood Birds Nest from the restaurants. However, the demands are at peak during the Chinese New Year period. Blood Birds Nest is usually given as a gift during this period as it symbolizes good health and longevity wishes for the recipient.
In addition, it is a symbol of status in society. Blood Birds Nest has been a core part of Chinese tradition and culture for hundreds of years now. The increase of wealth in the Asian region, along with a big increase in the price of bowl of Blood Birds Nest has made Blood Birds Nest “the Caviar of the East”
Blood Birds Nest is highly expensive animal bioproduct. The trade of Blood Birds Nest in the global market has been on the rise for decades. It is expected that the demands of the Blood Birds Nest will continue to increase irrespective of their low production.