Bird’s Nest Can Be Categorized Into Two Main Types: House Nest And Cave Nest.
The House nest refers to nests that are built in wooden-roofed swallow farmhouses that are humid and dark. The interior temperature (28°C – 30°C), brightness and relative humidity (90%) are relatively similar to the conditions found in the bird’s natural cave habitat. The swiftlet leaves the farmhouse to find food in the wild in the morning and returns in the evening. Since the farmhouse provides the birds a better habitat, house nest contain extremely less impurities and feathers. They are cleaner, have an intact boat or spoon shape, and have a high swelling capacity. The white nests are smooth, while the yellow and bloody-red nests are crunchier because it contains more minerals than white nest.
The cave nest refers to nests constructed in caves and on cliffs. Owing to the harsh natural climate and environment, the nest is firm, hard and deep in color. It is not as well shaped as the house nest and exhibits higher impurities. The cave nest is crunchy with a low swelling capacity that lengthens the time for it to swell when preparing.
Identifying Bird’s nest origins (types, textures & shapes)
There are Cave Swiftlet, House Swiftlet, Grass Swiftlet and Hair Swiftlet. For the Cave Swiftlets, there are darker or yellowier , more hair and impurities, firmer and crispy feeling when eaten. For the House Swiftlet, there are generally whiter, softer, texture, less hair, smoother and tender feeling when eaten. Lastly the Grass Swiftlet and Hair Swiftlets, the impurities are more then the nest itself, often used mixing with other things or grinded for other purpose.
For Colors, there are White Nest (also called “Noble Bird’s Nest”), Yellow Nest, Orange Nest and Blood Nest
There are different shapes like Cup shapes, lumpy, stripped, shredded, minced, ball shapes bird’s nest. Leftovers from trimming whole nest cups can be made into nest cake or shredded nest mixture. They are all bird’s nest, but due to the fact that they are made of nest rims, the appearances of these types of nests are not so nice and harder in texture.
The different products of bird’s nests that can be found in the market include the natural whole nest, nest strips, nest pieces, nest threads and the irregular shaped nest cake processed from nest threads.
The marketed bird’s nest are produced by three different swallow species
• The Swiftlet: The nest of swiftlet is constructed entirely by its saliva and is commonly termed a whole nest. Since the swiftlet feet on the different food, the saliva and the nest differ in color, varying farm from mainly white, yellow, grey, red and purple. The whole nest gives the best nourishing and replenishing effects to humans. The cooked bird’s nest taste mellow. (Swiftlets are small in size, only about 9 cm in length)
• The Feathered Swallow: This little bird also constructs its nest from saliva and feathers. These nests are of less purity than the whole nest made by the swiftlet. After disintegration and removal of the feathers and impurities, the nest is molded into the shape of a nest cake. The nest cake comes in beautiful shapes and the colour is mainly white and yellow The nest cake has a good swelling capacity. The feathered swallow is found in caves in Malaysia. It has a slightly longer body than swiftlet.
• The Grass Swallow: the body of the gross swallow is the grass is about 12 cm long. The nest is comprised of saliva and grass. Its purity is second to the nest of the feathered swallow and is the cheapest to purchase. Most of the nest pieces and nest threads sold in the markets are from gross swallows. They are the products after the nest has been disintegrated and impurities have been removed.Image The nest of grass swallow is mainly grassy and yellow in color. The swelling capacity is low but the price is reasonable. It is an excellent choice for beginner.
