This evocatively named art installation can be found in the centre of Sydney’s CBD. It’s hidden away down one of the city’s narrow, dark laneways in Angel Place.
What you see here are a collection of more than 100 empty birdcages, strung high overhead between the walls of the alley.
The cages are pointedly empty. They represent the birds that once thrived in the area but were displaced after British settlement. Habitats were disturbed or destroyed, and over 50 species of birds were either forced out or became endangered.
As I moved around beneath the cages, the installation came alive with birdsong - warbling, whistling, twittering and tweeting.
It was not some sort of generic chirping. Each of the songs belonged to a specific species. It might be the Scarlet Honeyeater, the Golden Whistler, the Superb Lyrebird, an Emu-wren, the Leaden Flycatcher, or the Dollarbird.
During the day, you hear songs from birds which were active in daylight and at night, the songs belong to those active after dark like the Tawny Frogmouth and the White-throated Nightjar.
I almost didn’t notice, but underneath your feet the names of the different species are recorded on the pavement.
It’s a throughly captivating and thought provoking artwork.