IT’S difficult to watch, but this is the devastating reality of bird smuggling.

On Monday, 24 critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoos were stuffed into 1.5L plastic bottles and packed into travel bags in an attempt to smuggle them out of the Port of Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city.

Footage shows the birds wriggling and helpless in their plastic cells.

“The birds were still alive then but some were already very weak,” Lily Djafar, spokeswoman for the Tanjung Perak police, told CNN.

Indonesian police intervened during an anti-smuggling operation and the birds were cut free by officials. They have since received medical attention.

A 37-year-old man was arrested after attempting to board a passenger ship with the animals.

The yellow-crested cockatoo is a species in dire threat of extinction, having disappeared from much of its natural habitat due to hunting and poor reproductive rates. There are only approximately 7,000 of the animals left, according to Bird Life International.

“This cockatoo has suffered (and may continue to suffer) an extremely rapid population decline, owing to unsustainable trapping for the cagebird trade,” it reads.

The species’ “precipitous decline is almost entirely attributable to unsustainable exploitation for internal and international trade. It therefore qualifies as Critically Endangered”.

Yellow-crested cockatoos sell for as much as $1200 on the black market.

They were labelled as “critically endangered” in 2007 by the by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

— youngma@news.com.au