Songbird slaughter

>> Migrating millions die in nets & traps >> Black market worth £13m a year

- NADA FARHOUD

MILLIONS of beautiful songbirds are being illegally trapped by poachers and served up as a delicacy.

Owls, woodpeckers, and other rare species have also been caught in nets and on cruel limesticks made by pasting glue to branches so that tired birds rest and become stuck, dying hours later from stress and exhaustion.

Secret restaurants on the holiday island of Cyprus charge diners up to €100 (£86) to feast on the protected species as part of a huge black market industry. 

Nearly 25 British species are targeted while on their migration, including cuckoos, blackcaps, chaffinches, songthrushes, and larks.

Bird trapping has long been banned on the Mediterranean island. But despite this, the south-east of the country now has the highest density of illegal trapping sites in the European Union.

Electronic decoy devices are also commonly used by poachers, luring unsuspecting birds into nets by playing the songs of blackcaps. 

Cyprus is a crucial stop-over site each spring and autumn for migratory birds, including millions of songbirds, waterfowl, and birds of prey.

But instead of being a resting place, two to three million birds a year are slaughtered. Among them are turtle doves immortalized in The 12  Days of Christmas disappearing in real life.

It is Britain's fastest. declining bird species and one which is threatened with global extinction.

Lloyd Scott, from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, said: "Put simply, southeastern Cyprus is a black hole for European migratory birds. 

"Estimates suggest that around two to three million songbirds are illegally killed here each year.

"Many other species are also affected, such as nightjars, owls, cuckoos, wryneck, flycatchers, shrikes, and orioles.