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Ortolans, Songbirds Enjoyed as French Delicacy, Are Being Eaten Into Extinction | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

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Hunters illegally catch some 30,000 of the 300,000 ortolans that pass through southwestern France every migration season Meilan Solly Associate Editor, History To prepare the French delicacy ortolan bunting, one must capture the tiny songbird as it attempts to migrate south for the winter, force feed it much like the witch from “Hansel and Gretel” fattens up her hapless victims, and, finally, drown it in a vat of Armagnac brandy. Once the ortolan is dead (and, thanks to the brandy, marinated), it is cooked, plucked and served. The diner traditionally veils their face with a napkin before consuming the bird—bones, feet, head and everything but the beak—in a single bite. In the words of the Telegraph’s Harry Wallop, “The napkin is partly to keep in all the aromas of the dish, partly to disguise you having to spit out some of the bigger bones. But, mostly, because diners wish to hide the shame of eating such a beautiful creature from the eyes of God.” Today, ortolan poaching is illegal in

France outlawed ortolan hunting in 1999, but the ban was rarely enforced until 2007 and remains unevenly implemented Pierre Dalous via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY SA-3.0 To prepare the French delicacy ortolan bunting, one must capture the tiny songbird as it attempts to migrate south for the winter, force feed it much like the witch from “Hansel and Gretel” fattens up her hapless victims, and, finally, drown it in a vat of Armagnac brandy . Once the ortolan is dead (and, thanks to the brandy, marinated), it is cooked, plucked and served. The diner traditionally veils their face with a napkin

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