2 men bring 10 birds to Sembawang pavement at 5am twice per week on walks, residents complain

A Sembawang resident lodged a complaint to her town council after being wakened up by bird noises at around 5am on Wednesdays and Saturdays for over a year.

The complainant told Shin Min Daily News that her ordeal was caused by two men, who would bring around 10 cages of birds to the pavement in front of Block 351C and Block 354D Admiralty Drive on those mornings.

Until the men leave the pavement at 7am, their pet birds would keep chirping, causing disruptions to the residents' rest time, lamented the complainant.

A Shin Min reporter who visited the pavement in question noticed that it only lies around 300m away from a cluster of three to four Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks.

Hanged bird cages on tree branches, road signs

To support her claims, the complainant also shared a photo with Shin Min, which showed two men chatting while sitting on mats underneath a tree along the pavement.

Meanwhile, bird cages could be found hanging on tree branches and road signs around them.

The complainant shared that she does not oppose the idea of bird lovers taking their pets on a walk.

However, in this case, she believed the timing of the men's walk was too early.

Additionally, she could not understand why they chose to bring their birds to that particular pavement when they do not even live nearby.

Complainant tried to negotiate with men

The complainant told Shin Min she had also tried to solve the problem directly with the two men before she sought help from the town council.

"My husband had tried to persuade the men to come to the pavement later in the day, as 5am is too early for us.

While they agreed to our requests, the noise situation did not improve. That's why we reported the matter to the town council."

Following her feedback, the noise situation improved, as the men would only come once a week in July 2024, shared the complainant.

"However, since November 2024, they had reverted back to bringing their birds to the pavement twice a week," she lamented.

Not all residents troubled

Several residents interviewed by Shin Min confirmed that they had heard sounds made by birds as well.

However, instead of negatively affecting their life, those sounds brought a "sense of tranquillity" to those residents.

One of them told the Chinese daily that while she was unsure where the bird sounds came from, the sounds "made her feel closer to nature".

While she had seen elderlies go on walks while carrying their bird cages, they always covered the cages with cloths, added the resident.

Her observation was concurred by another resident, who added that the birds were always kept in cages by their owners and did not contaminate the environment.

Town council statement

In response to Shin Min's queries, the Sembawang Town Council confirmed it had received feedback regarding noise created by pet birds in May and June 2024.

The town council said it "immediately launched an investigation" based on the dates provided by the complainant, but it was unable to locate the two men involved.

According to the statement, the town council had "pruned the tree branches" to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

During its engagement with the public at the end of June 2024, the town council was told that the "two men had turned up less frequently near the HDB blocks".

The town council also did not receive further feedback regarding the men afterwards, the statement read.

Nevertheless, the town council said that it will continue monitoring the situation.

Top images via Shin Min Daily News