Thirty men squat on concrete outside a colourful urban café on the Indonesian island of Java. Their gaze is focused on a rainbow palate of cages dangling from a corrugated metal roof. They listen even more intently – for inside the structures, birds are competing to get their songs heard. The onlookers are just as […]
BirdLife’s research has revealed that an estimated 25 million birds are illegally killed or taken each year across the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the Caucasus. Here, we delve deeper into the shocking discoveries that galvanised our Flight for Survival campaign. A boy clutches a fistful of Eurasian Golden Orioles Oriolus oriolus: he seeks buyers for […]
The Eurasian Blackcap is one of seven flagship birds in our Flight for Survival campaign to raise awareness of the scope and scale of the illegal killing of migratory birds. For many people, it’s an iconic sound of the countryside: a rich, complex musical whistle which culminates in a loud, high-pitched crescendo. It is so […]
Bird poaching – for meat or for the pet trade – has become a silent epidemic across China, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of migratory birds each year. Gu Xuan, a young conservationist, is determined to break this cycle of death and destruction, and set the birds free. This video was first […]
Thousands of birds, suspected to have been caught from the wild, are being sold openly in Vietnam, according to a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Many of the species on sale are threatened with extinction, warns the report. In April 2016, researchers from TRAFFIC surveyed bird vendors — both shops and […]
Only one road runs through the Cypriot village of Xylophagou, and the traffic rarely stops. There is a florist selling dusty ferns in pots, a hardware shop protected by a gaggle of surly-looking youths on mopeds, and a deserted fast-food outlet. The main parade ends at a cafe overlooking a roundabout that leads the way […]
The Egyptians line their beaches with fine two-metre high nets that can stretch for miles across the Nile delta and will catch any bird coming close; the Maltese will cover whole trees in nylon; the Cypriots smear branches in glue to stop birds flying; the Italians will kill nearly anything that flies and the French […]
A pair of songbirds cut loose from winter’s touch, surfing a cool backyard wind. • Sparrow | Passer domesticus