A refugee from northern Syria hunting for goldfinch in KRG’s camps

Dohuk- North-Press Agency

At dawn, the young refugee Taj al-Din Idris sits on the outskirts of Barda-Rash camp, in Dohuk governorate, Kurdistan Region, wearing his winter clothes and erecting nylon-threaded net, waiting for the goldfinch to get close, to lure it, and hunt it.

Last October, Taj al-Din took refuge with his family fleeing the Turkish military invasion in north-eastern Syria, and settled in Barda-Rash camp in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Since his childhood, Taj al-Din inherited the profession of hunting songbirds from his father, who in turn inherited the profession from his grandfather, so he would go out early in the morning and set up his net, thus he might hunt a bird, sell it, and earn a living.

Taj al-Din explained the hunting method to North-Press, by saying: "We place the female goldfinch over the stick attached on the net made of nylon thread, and we put a male goldfinch in the cage next to it, as it tweets aloud, so another goldfinch is tricked into the net, turning the net by pulling the thread attached to the stick, the new goldfinch falls into the net, and we catch it.”

Taj al-Din, during his stay in the camp, has hunted about 10 goldfinch birds, he sold them the town of Barda-Rash, to local dealers at a price of 10,000 Iraqi dinars. He talked about the qualities and kinds of the goldfinch: “Goldfinch tweets with three different sounds, there are the Syrian kind and the ordinary kind, as the orange Syrian goldfinch is sold at a price more expensive than the White goldfinch. While several goldfinch hunting kits consist of a net made of nylon thread, a stick to tie the female goldfinch, a cage to place the goldfinch singing, and a long line to pull the net when the goldfinch is caught.”

Regarding the hunting gear, Taj al-Din explained: "There are shops that sell the hunting gear that cost $100, but we make the tools by ourselves.” The goldfinch has a beautiful and attractive look, it is predominantly red, black, white and yellow color, and its weight ranges between 19-32 grams.

 
Taj al-Din trains the goldfinch on the way to tweet, during hunting for 3 months, he sometimes mimics the voices of goldfinch to lure other birds, as he is able to distinguish between the voices of male and female goldfinch, he said: "The male goldfinch is more expensive than the female goldfinch, because of its use for hunting, the male goldfinch is also more beautiful than the female.”

While thousands of IDPs from north-eastern Syria are spending their days in the refugee camps in Kurdistan Region, Taj al-Din is still waiting to return to the area from which he was displaced, where birds are even closer to his heart.