migratory birds

[chelwood]

reading my books on mediterranean birds i see cyprus so i assume both south and north cyprus are blacklisted as countries that kills large amounts of migratory birds , can anyone trow light on this and the reasons why this happens .

[woodspeckie]

I think the South is blacklisted but not heard if the North is.

[mickhm]

Hi I think you will find in the North during the hunting season nothing is safe if it moves crawls or flys someone will shoot at it. Worse so is in the South where every song bird is looked upon as a delicacy. It has been reported that those in the South have even gone as far as spreading glue on branches to catch the small birds and removing the poor creatures but leaving the legs behind. You will not see many birds in the South. I believe you will find the same on mainland Greece.

[dippersgirl]

No, North cyprus is an 'illegal Country' and does not get mentioned in books generally.

As for birds, the habit of illegally killing birds happens as much if not more in the South!!!!

It is illegal in both parts of the island, but that does not seem to stop people.

Hundreds of thousands of birds are killed in mist nets and on limesticks each year to end up as expensive ambelopoulia delicacies; the indiscriminate nature of the trapping means many rare and threatened species are caught. While there was a drop in mist net use in the Republic in autumn 2011, limestick use significantly increased and action against restaurants serving ambelopoulia was limited.

There is a society for the protection of birds here as well as in the south.

[mickhm]

Hi Dipsasgirl I cannot stand the indesriminate killing of small creatures do you have any contact details for the protection of birds in the North?

thanks
Mick

[banjo]

Here in North Cyprus it is called Kuşkor and they used to have web pages. But for one reason or an other 'they are down'. They are on Facebook and so why not ask any questions you might have on facebook. I am sure you will have a quick response

[niceone]

http://www.cypnet.co.uk/ncyprus/green/birds/kuskor.htm

[mickhm]

Thanks nice one will try to join the group. It is just so sad

best wishes
Mick

[dippersgirl]

info@kuskor.org

that is their email. On C44 a member called 'groucho' was involved, also I think 'erolz'

[woodspeckie]

Groucho is a member on here I think but haven't seen a post lately, Kuskor are based in an office behind the Colony Hotel.

[chelwood]

thanks for the replies on this subject , i will certainly be feeding and watering the birds and will be very interested to see how many differant birds appear .

[erol]

A few comments.

'Lime Sticking' - the use of wood sticks covered in a sticky substance as a means of trapping birds is the 'traditional' method of trapping birds used in the region for hundreds if not thousands of years and is still done in the North and the South. It is illegal both North and South but does still occur. However much more damaging is the more modern use of 'mist nets' to trap large numbers of birds, often along with recorded lure calls played from audio equipment.

The numbers of Birds killed annually by such trapping in Cyprus numbers in the millions and the indiscriminate nature of the trapping means that several endangered species are killed this way.

http://www.birdlife.org/community/2012/ ... d-in-2011/

There would seem to have been a decrease in 2012, which may be connected to Cyprus taking up the EU presidency in July of 2012. There was a similar decrease in the year leading up to Cyprus' EU accession after which levels steadily increased to the record levels of 2011 detailed above.

http://www.birdlifecyprus.org/index.php ... 56&lang=en

Having been involved in the past in illegal trapping monitoring projects in the South for Birdlife Cyprus an in the North for Kuskor it does seem that the problem is much larger in the South than the North, particularly the most damaging mist netting. However it does occur throughout Cyprus.