Twenty-one yellow-crested cockatoos have been found stuffed in plastic water bottles at Tanjung Perak port in Surabaya, Indonesia.

According to Traffic Southeast Asia's Facebook page, the birds were seized from a man's luggage aboard a passenger ferry and were to be smuggled for the exotic pet market. The plastic bottles had their ends removed to insert the birds for travel.

The birds have been relocated to Indonesia's natural resources conservation office, which deals with wildlife-trafficking cases, reports news agency AFP.

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AFP reports that Aldy Sulaiman, head of the criminal investigation unit at Tanjung Perak port, said the man carrying the cockatoos admitted to holding two birds for a friend but claimed not to know about the other birds on board.

If found guilty of smuggling, the man could face up to five years in prison.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the yellow-crested cockatoo, native to Indonesia and East Timor, is considered critically endangered.