Parts of Europe are now "death traps" for migrating songbirds, according to the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), which reports that millions of birds are illegally poached each year -- literally.
The birds are often either pickled or poached for a Cypriot "delicacy" called ambelopoulia.
The illegal traps catch anything that lands on them, or flies into them, so many endangered species, such as certain owls, also become bycatch victims.
Some are trapped using glue sticks made from the berries of a local tree. The glue sticks are placed on the branches of trees, and any birds that perch on them are stuck until the trapper returns to kill them (usually with a tooth pick to the throat). Often the legs of the birds are so stuck to the glue sticks that they need to be pulled off.
On the island of Cypress, all forms of songbird trapping have been criminal offenses since 1974. By the mid-nineties, as many as ten million songbirds a year were being killed in Cyprus.
