Prince Charles has called on the Cypriot government to clamp down on illegal bird trapping

But his pleas to end the killing appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

The menfolk of Cyprus and Greece have long believed that feasting on the tiny songbirds, which alight in the south Mediterranean during winter migration, will boost their staying power in the bedroom.

As a result hundreds of thousands never make it back to Britain’s woods and meadows as they are trapped in nets and killed to go into the cooking pot for the traditional dish called Ambelopoulia, in which the boiled or fried birds are eaten whole, save for the beak, by randy Cypriot and Greek men.

The trade is so lucrative that it is believed to be Mafia-backed.

The Prince, who is well known for his love of wildlife, condemned what he described as the 'industrial scale killing' on the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhelekia on the island's southern coast and wrote to Cyprus' president Nicos Anastasiades last March to call for a ban.

In the letter, which was also sent to British forces commander Major-General Richard Cripwell, the Prince wrote: "Disturbingly, autumn mist-netting levels are now much higher on this British soil than in the Republic of Cyprus, with mist netting in the SBAs estimated to have increased 180 per cent since 2002."

However, bird groups say the number of trapped songbirds killed illegally in Dhelekia reached 900,000 in the autumn - the highest recorded number for 12 years.

The RSPB, which has been monitoring the numbers with BirdLife Cyprus since 2002 said the equivalent of nearly 15,000 birds were killed every day in September and October - three times higher than when monitoring started in 2002.

A spokesman said: "Small-scale trapping of songbirds for human consumption on Cyprus was practised for many centuries, but it has been illegal on the island for 40 years.

"Unfortunately, organised crime now seems to be driving this illegal activity which is thought to be worth millions of Euros every autumn."

It is believed that trappers with links to the Mafia are involved in the poaching of birds.