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Fig-eaters are small passerines of various genus (Sylviidés, Acrocéphalidés et Phylloscopidés); They change their diet in the time of fruits, passing from insectivorous to fructivorous. As a result they get stouter, acquiring a delicious grease which meant they became a target for hunting from Antiquity to the present day resulting in their near extinction. We know a very elaborate, long and precise recipe from Babylon. After the Greeks and Romans, Byzantines and Arabs appreciated and consumed these birds, that were prepared according to various recipes. Nevertheless, in the Arab cultures, two kinds of texts show the interest for those small birds: first, medical and paramedical texts of the hippocratic tradition, and second, texts of cookery books that provide recipes while sometimes quoting physicians. Arab authors attributed aphrodisiacal and medical properties to these small birds, but they also were suspicious of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]