RSPB shared this video on March 15, 2017.

Nets used to capture birds. Video: BirdLife Cyprus.



Nets used to capture birds. Video: BirdLife Cyprus.

Sticky branches used to capture birds. Video: BirdLife Cyprus. Sticky branches used to capture birds. Video: BirdLife Cyprus.

Recorded birdsong to try and lure the birds. Video: BirdLife Cyprus. Recorded birdsong to try and lure the birds. Video: BirdLife Cyprus.

The footage was shot near Larnaca, a city in the south of the island. Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided between the Greek Republic of Cyprus, located on the southern half of the island, and the Turkish Republic of Cyprus, in the north. But there are also two sovereign military bases on the island (Akrotiri and Dhekelia), run by the British. Many farmers work in these areas controlled by the island’s former colonial power.The video was filmed by a member of the British animal rights charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).The video shows birds caught up in nets hung between trees. Most of the trapped birds in the video are a species called the Eurasian blackcap , but some are common redstarts , which is a species on conservation watchlists as its numbers are in decline.The footage captures several men coming to collect the birds. One of them bites the tiny animal’s necks to kill them before tossing them on the ground. They are later gathered and thrown into buckets.Local NGO BirdLife Cyprus runs a surveillance programme that monitors bird trapping in specific zones on the island. The NGO estimates that last summer alone more than 1.7 million birds were illegally trapped in the zones it monitors. The NGO reported that about 21 kilometres of nets – the primary method for catching birds – were being used in this same region. NGO workers also discovered branches that had been smeared with a sticky substance to trap birds. Some bird catchers also lure in their prey with electronic devices that imitate birdsong. These methods are illegal because they make no distinction between which birds are captured.Between August and October 2016, Cypriot and British authorities removed 855 nets and 3501 branches covered with sticky material. During the same period, authorites arrested 100 people for involvement in illegal bird trapping, according to the same report.