Tackling the soaring illegal wildlife trade in Cyprus' songbirds

Hundreds of thousands of migrating songbirds are trapped each year by criminal gangs

Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapalla). Photo by Alexis Lours, Wikimedia Commons, CC4.0

While reading Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees on holiday last week, I came across a perhaps lesser publicised corner of the illegal wildlife trade.

Many of us might be familiar with the ways in which species such as tigers, rhinos, elephants and even pangolins fall victim to the illegal wildlife trade. But the plight of millions of tiny songbirds on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus feels less spoken about.

Cyprus lies in a corner of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, close to Turkey, Greece, Syria and Lebanon. Its location makes it a perfect stopover for migrating songbirds like chiffchaffs, blackcaps, song thrushes and garden warblers to rest their wings as they travel between continents from season to season. The island hosts over 200 migratory species every year.

While these birds add to Cyprus' natural beauty, something more sinister is at play. Each year, hundreds of thousands of birds are illegally trapped and killed to be sold on the black market. Their bodies are pickled or boiled whole for a local delicacy called ambelopoulia.

According to BirdLife Cyprus, an estimated 2.5 million birds were killed on the island in 2014, the worst year to date. A 2025 report by BirdLife Cyprus estimates the number of birds killed in autumn 2024 was just over 825,000.

The main target for poachers is the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapalla), a small grey warbler with a distinctive black “cap” on its head. However, the traps laid by poachers are indiscriminate, ensnaring over 150 different songbird species, many of which are supposedly protected.

How are so many birds trapped?

Criminal gangs hide speakers in trees that emit birdsong under the cover of darkness, which attracts the birds. A 2022 study by the University of Cyprus found that this use of speakers is a highly effective way of luring wild birds into traps, leading to the capture of 6 to 8 times more birds than when no speakers are used. They also found the practice increases the number of non-target species caught.

The birds are lured towards traps called mist nets — large but thin mesh nets that are difficult to see — and limesticks — sticks covered in substances like glue that the birds stick to.

The delicacy of ambelopoulia in Cyprus is thought to date back to the Middle Ages and historically was used to substitute the diets of people living off the land. However, today’s technology means birds can be trapped at much greater scales than they once were, turning a local tradition into a multi-million-euro industry.

Mist net. Photo by Umeshsrinivasan, Wikimedia Commons, CC3.0

Conservation efforts

While trapping wild songbirds in this way has been illegal in Cyprus since 1974, enforcing this law can prove challenging. Despite efforts by conservation organisations like BirdLife Cyprus and the RSPB, mist net trapping activity within Cyprus increased by 76 percent between autumn 2023 and autumn 2024, the highest levels recorded since 2014.

BirdLife Cyprus’ February 2025 update on illegal bird trapping activity notes: “We believe that an increase in organised trapping groups, in combination with the lack of effective enforcement against these large-scale organised trappers by the Game and Fauna Service, and Cyprus Police Anti-Poaching Unit, has resulted in this increase in mist net trapping within the Republic of Cyprus.

“With the re-instatement of the Cyprus Police Anti-Poaching Unit in June 2023, we had anticipated and were assured that these organised trapping groups would be effectively tackled by this unit. However, similarly to Autumn 2023, enforcement action from this unit in 2024 has been very disappointing.”

Chiffchaff. Photo by Simon V on Unsplash

Fighting back

Changing attitudes is a key part of trying to end the practice of indiscriminately killing songbirds in Cyprus, which is easier said than done. According to BirdLife Cyprus, a number of Cypriot politicians have publicly said they’ve eaten blackcaps — blackcaps have been protected in Cyprus since 1988, meaning their killing and consumption is illegal.

BirdLife Cyprus is actively working to influence politicians and garner more awareness and support amongst the general public. It is also calling for better and more consistent enforcement action against large-scale organised bird trappers and greater collaboration between government bodies and conservation NGOs like the RSPB.

“We cannot allow the progress we have made to falter, nor can we let the shocking levels of songbird killings return to the levels we once saw,” Mark Thomas, head of investigations at the RSPB, told Inside Ecology earlier this year.

“In the British Sovereign Base Areas, it’s crucial that police resources are maintained to ensure the low levels of bird trapping achieved in recent years are sustained. In the Republic of Cyprus, we need a renewed and unwavering commitment from the government to address the organised criminal networks behind this industry, which continues to generate enormous profits with minimal risk.

“This is a fight we must win, for the birds and for the future of our shared natural heritage.”

You can read more about BirdLife Cyprus’ conservation efforts here.