Police in Indonesia on Monday apprehended a man suspected of trying to sell endangered birds which he stuffed into plastic water bottles. The suspect is now facing prison sentence for alleged smuggling.

The smuggling suspect had cut off the bottom part of 1.5-liter bottles to squeeze in the yellow-crested cockatoos before attempting to leave a port in Indonesia with them. The 37-year-old man, who confessed that he carried two birds for a friend, now faces a five-year prison sentence for the smuggling offense, according to the Washington Post.

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"The birds were still alive then but some were already very weak," CNN quoted Tanjung Perak police spokeswoman Lily Djafar.

A video by RT shows the endangered birds wriggling inside the plastic containers, News.com.au said.

Police in Indonesia found almost two dozen cockatoos and one green parrot stuffed in bottles which were placed in a crate loaded on a boat. Officials immediately cut the birds free, the report relayed.

They sent the rescued birds to Indonesia's natural conservation office for medical attention, but CNN cited the office saying seven of the birds died later.

The smuggling suspect was reportedly arrested on Monday while disembarking a vessel while custom officials were conducting an anti-smuggling operation at the Port of Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, the  second-largest city in Indonesia, the report detailed.

Yellow-crested cockatoos, which are also called Cacatua sulphurea, were classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) under critically endangered species in 2007. This means the birds are almost extinct in the wild.

The said birds are native to Indonesia and East Timor, but their population has declined rapidly due to illegal trapping for the cage bird smuggling and poor reproduction, IUCN explained. As of now, there are only around 7,000 of them left, Bird Life International says.

Although they are already critically endangered, many continue to hunt, exploit and sell them for as much as US$1,200 each in the black market. This, according to News.com.au, is the harsh reality of the cage bird trade and smuggling in Indonesia.

TagsIndonesia, smuggling, smuggler, cockatoo, bird smuggling, black market