Bence Máté's Image

Grilled, pickled or boiled – around two million protected birds die each year for the traditional Cypriot dish of ambelopoulia. Poachers catch the unsuspecting song birds by coating branches with a sticky glue and luring them to the trap with recorded sounds. Once stuck, the birds are left to die agonising deaths.

Although the practice of bird trapping is illegal, the poachers, dealers and restaurants serving ambelopoulia are rarely brought to justice. The toll of this horrific practice continues to rise with populations of nearly 40 migratory songbird species in decline. For Bence, it is ‘one of the biggest conservation failures of our time’.