Thursday, 7 June 2018

Connect with Conservation: Malta bird massacre



Steve Allain, our resident conservationist, turns his attention to the threats to songbirds.

Friday, 25th May 2018

If there is one group of birds you have probably noticed declining in the British countryside over the past few years, it is the songbirds. Songbirds are a large group of birds, which, as their name suggests, like to sing, filling the landscapes they inhabit with the beautiful sound of bird songs. There is a number of reasons for their decline in recent times, such as the loss of habitats and the use of pesticides, which has reduced the amount of prey available in an area. One factor which you may not be aware of, however, is that of hunting. Every spring and autumn on the islands of Malta there is a hunt, in which thousands of migrating birds are shot over the Mediterranean islands. This is not the only place where songbirds are at risk: a large number of species have disappeared from the wild in south-east Asia, where birds have been collected to supply the pet trade.

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