China’s bird’s nest crackdown leaves Indonesia struggling to feather its …

Isnur Wahyudi, 55, dons a white surgical mask and a hair net, pulls on a pair of tall rubber boots and splashes through an antiseptic bath before ducking inside an imposing looking six-storey bird house that resembles a concrete bunker. Nestled in the middle of Indonesia’s Sajira forest in the West Java province of Banten, it’s one of 50 he helps manage.

Inside, as many of 40,000 frenetic swiftlets swoop and occasionally careen into visitors. The object of their frenzy: scores of nests, which they spin out of their own saliva and are prized by millions, mainly in China where they are used to make soup.