The Rocul

Gioacchino Franzolini, owner, in the 1940s, of the Rocul on today's La Faula Hillside, carrying decoy birds on his way to the Rocul

The tradition of catching live birds in the Friuli Region dates back to times immemorial. Fortunately, today this practice is forbidden by law. The birds were caught to eat as well as to cage them for the enjoyment of their singing. One of many bird-catching systems devised over the centuries was that of building a ‘Rocul’. ‘Rocul’ is one of many specialised words existing in the Friulian dialect to describe bird-catching traps and implements.

The site where a ‘Rocul’, or ‘bressane’, was built was chosen after years of observation, which pinpointed where bird migratory corridors existed. The site had to be away from existing woodland or trees, so that to the birds a Rocul would look like a natural tree grove.

Fresco of a Rocul in Palazzo Menegozzi, Aviano

The hide and the circles of Hornbeams

A ‘Rocul’ would take at least five years to develop, and it would preferably be placed on a gentle slope. A double circle of white-hornbeam trees, with an external perimeter of between 40 to 60 metres, would be planted. Hornbeams are very suitable for pruning and form very good hedges. The distance between the trees of the two concentrical circles was 4.5 to 5 metres, and the final height of the trees had to be between 2.70 and 3.00 metres.

The relationship between the width and the height of this large trap was determined by the angle at which birds take off from the ground to get airborne. This precise relationship forced the birds to pass through the spaces between the two circles of hornbeams, where they would become entangled in the mist-nets hung between the trees.

A tower, or ‘hide’, built of stones, bricks and mortar was positioned at the top of the tree circle. From the second floor of this ‘Cason’, the bird-catcher would, at appropriate times, throw down into the middle of the circle a Y-shaped racket made from a branch interwoven with willow twigs. As it fell, it produced a whistling sound resembling the air rushing through the primary feathers of a diving bird of prey, causing small birds to take flight and be caught in the nets.

Birds were attracted to the centre of the Rocul by a carefully planted mixture of berry-bearing bushes, seed-bearing grasses and trees, as well as by the singing of decoy birds, either caged or strung up. The mist-nets consisted of three layers: two external large-mesh nets and a loose fine-mesh net sandwiched between them. When a bird hit the nets, it would be caught by the middle net, enclosing it like a sack.

The Y-shaped Rackets

The remains of the hide of the Rocul, which once belonged to Gioacchino Franzolini on the La Faula hillside, were later used by the Osovani Partisans as an outlook during World War II in 1944.