Fight to save bird from chef

Ortolan. Photo / Wikipedia

French ornithologists are waging an increasingly sophisticated war against the hunting of the ortolan, a songbird which is regarded by gastronomes - when eaten beak, bones and all - as the ultimate in sinful pleasure.

Over the next two weeks, bird lovers in southwest France will be systematically springing "live" traps set to capture the tiny ortolan buntings as they migrate from northern Europe to Africa. Although the capture of the ortolan has been illegal in France for more than a decade, hunting as an "age-old tradition" is tolerated semi-officially in the Landes, south of Bordeaux.

Up to 50,000 birds are captured each September and sold to chefs and gourmets as far away as New York, despite a ban on their sale. An ortolan, which weighs roughly 25g, can fetch more than €100 ($180) on the international black market.

The Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) - led by Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, a television presenter and former boyfriend of the animal-loving actress Brigitte Bardot - accuses the French Government of bowing to the local hunting lobby.

In recent years, the LPO has hired helicopters and light aircraft to survey the maize fields, thick scrub and pine forests of the Landes to locate the main hunting sites. The traps consist of rings of cages, some of which contain live ortolans. The bird's distinctive call - and the prospect of food - brings other migrating ortolans into the cages. Over the last few days, and up to mid-September, volunteers will be raiding the trapping sites and opening the cages.

Hunting has been outlawed in France since 1999 but the captures are going on in many areas. Afterwards, the birds are fattened in darkness for one month and then killed by drowning in armagnac."

Ortolans are served whole and aflame. Only the feet are removed, although some chefs take off most of the feathers. By tradition an ortolan must be eaten with a large white napkin draped over the diner's head. Some experts say this is intended to heighten the intensity of the experience. Others concede that it hides the messy act of chomping into a charred, red-hot ortolan.

- INDEPENDENT