Migratory bird protection project: Bird Protection Camps Sardinia

Thousands of Italian hunters and bird trappers respect neither the EU Birds Directive, which applies to all EU member states, nor the applicable Italian hunting and nature protection laws during the three-month Italian hunting season. They also show no consideration and sentimentality for the murder of millions of our songbirds in the wintering areas on the Italian mainland and on the Italian Mediterranean islands or during their spring and autumn migration to and from Central and Northern Europe.

In the mountain regions around the capital Cagliari in the south of Sardinia, strictly protected Song and Mistle Thrushes, Blackbirds and especially Robins are still victims of the ongoing illegal poaching of songbirds every winter! The atrocities involved in unlawful bird trapping with tree and ground snare traps, strictly prohibited by the EU bird protection directive of 1979, are indescribable. And, as long as poachers make high profits with their feathered prey with impunity, even strictly protected songbird species will not be spared.

Data (estimates)

• up to 4,000 illegal tree and ground snare traps
• up to 50 mist nets
• up to 90,000 migratory birds slaughtered annually
• a Song Thrush skewer with eight thrushes can be sold for up to 80 euros

The favoured prey of the poachers

Song Thrush, Blackbird and Robin

The valleys rich in freshwater and mountainous regions covered with bushes in the south of Sardinia are ideal winter quarters. The bright red berries of the Arbutus are an almost inexhaustible source of food for Robins and Song Thrushes. The berries are cleverly placed in bushes or on the ground in specially constructed traps to tempt foraging migratory birds. When the birds try to snatch the berries, they fall into the snare traps and are strangled painfully to death.

The bird protection camp operations of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), which have been conducted for more than ten years in cooperation with Italian bird protection organizations and our Foundation, have meanwhile significantly reduced illegal bird trapping throughout Sardinia. Currently, there are only a few regional migratory bird trapping areas in southern Sardinia!

On the bush-covered hillsides around the island's capital, Cagliari, and along the south coast of Sardinia, bird poachers carve miles of bird trapping trails into the scrubland, in which they set up their deadly tree and ground snare traps. More recently, poachers increasingly use illegal mist nets to capture even more birds. This practice is time-saving and more efficient.

The EU Bird Protection Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 expressly prohibits all these bird trapping and killing methods!

In the south of Sardinia, many people's mouths water at the mere thought of the holidays at Christmas and the turn of the year, even though they know that bird trapping is forbidden by law. They look forward to skewers of migratory birds with up to eight roasted thrushes. Poachers make a mint of money out of trapping. At weekly markets and in small shops, such skewers, garnished with eight thrushes, are sold for between 70 to 80 euros - illegally! Make no mistake. Song and Mistle Thrushes, Robins and Goldfinches go through hell on Sardinia for the sake of Italian and international "gourmets" craving for this food cult!

Operational commitment

During the main songbird trapping season, up to 10 voluntary Italian and German bird activists participate in the annual camps against migratory bird poaching on Sardinia. In demanding daily operations, the bird conservationists search for the treacherous snare traps in bushes and on the ground on the mountain scrubland slopes of the known bird-trapping regions. They either deactivate them and report them to the responsible police authorities or destroy the trapping gear on site. The activists, equipped with wire, bolt and box cutters, demolish hundreds of paper-thin snare traps and bird trapping nets annually.

We invest around 6,000.00 euros annually for the travel costs, basic accommodation and improved equipment for up to 10 bird activists in the bird protection camps on Sardinia.

Please support our Sardinia migratory bird rescue campaigns with your donation!