Berlin (taz) - The artist Wolfgang Müller (36) has nesting boxes hanging on the windows of his apartment in Wiener Strasse, Kreuzberg. Opposite his apartment is Görlitzer Park, and from there blue tits and great titmice fly into his nesting boxes. Müller, however, is no big lover of birds. On the contrary. Within weeks of the youngsters hatching, he sells them to Italian delicatessens. "They are indispensable ingredients for a well-known Italian dish", says Müller, who has no qualms about his business. "After all, I don't catch any wild birds but breed them at the window of my apartment. Besides, they come to me of their own will." The ex-art student began breeding birds after his grants were cut short by 560DM a month. The side business brings in extra 200-300 DM. A blue tit couple can have up to 14 chicks and brood twice a year. "When I finished studying, I had even less money, so I was desperate to find ways of earning extra income", he says. Next year he is going to hang nesting boxes for starlings. "Starlings weigh twice as much as titmice, even though the nesting boxes only need to be only slightly larger. The restaurants pay by weight." Müller knows that starlings, like crows, magpies and raves, are classifed as singing birds by scientists. Claudia Schandt

(die tageszeitung, 8 February, 1994)