By Alexander Wetmore
Originally appeared in the December 1938 issue of the National Geographic Magazine

This Web version COPYRIGHT 2004

With a troupial on his left hand, a veteran dealer (left center) in the outdoor bird market in Caracas, Venezuela, stands protectively beside his feathered stock in trade. Wicker and wire cages contain gaudy tanagers, honey creepers, native meadowlarks, siskins, mockingbirds, hummingbirds, and the ever-present canaries. “Every home that I entered in the city,” the author says, “had little aviaries standing in the patio, or small cages with birds hung in a window.”
Photograph by Alfed T. Palmer