UKC

Chris Packham highlighting the spring hunting season in Malta and the damage it does to migrant bird populations:

http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Unfortunately a well known problem which Bird Life Malta keep trying to tackle with their annual Springwatch camps (http://www.birdlifemalta.org/Content/SpringWatch2014/1189/#.Uz5kLM6PL4g ). Maybe someone like Chris Packham can help raise awareness

In reply to Douglas Griffin:
The situation in the Mediterranean is appalling: Every year, from one end of it to the other, hundreds of millions of songbirds and larger migrants are killed for food, profit, sport, and general amusement. The killing is substantially indiscriminate, with heavy impact on species already battered by destruction or fragmentation of their breeding habitat. Mediterraneans shoot cranes, storks, and large raptors for which governments to the north have multimillion-euro conservation projects. All across Europe bird populations are in steep decline, and the slaughter in the Mediterranean is one of the causes.

In reply to gd303uk:

What are the causes of bird population decline?

Can you point me to a website please?

In reply to blurty:

Shooting birds while they are on migration doesn't help
Best single source of data is probably
http://www.ebcc.info/trends2011.html

Changes in agriculture are one of the most important factors
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sowb/casestudy/62
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Agri-enviro...
http://www.ebcc.info/index.php?ID=436

In reply to blurty:
Hi Blurty,
There are many reasons for the decline in bird population numbers,
including those mentioned in the above post,
There is an interesting article in National Geographic; last song for song birds, that highlights some of the causes of the decline.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/songbird-migration/franzen-text#c...

In reply to blurty:

There is some more information here , page 6 :

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/wildbirds/docs/conserva...

And here:

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sowbsearchresults.php?a=ns&SearchTerms...

In reply to gd303uk:

and just to remind folk that its not just Malta where there are problems
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/03/scottish-birtd-of-prey-c...

(not really news but good to see the Guardian catching up at last)

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

deffo needs a bump. there's a petiton here but it's over 4 years ago..
http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/illegalkilling/index.aspx

In reply to Douglas Griffin:
It's worth noting that the vast majority of Maltese are totally against bird hunting and trapping. In fact Birdlife Malta have recently gathered 44000 signatures petitioning the government to organise a national referendum which shall decide whether spring hunting should be banned.
Check out www.birdlifemalta.org

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Malta is a weird place. I went climbing there and saw one bird all week. They do literally shoot them as soon as they see them. They obviously have a really strong gun lobby. Shooting is all year round not just in the spring.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Good for Chris. It has long been a problem