Wind Turbines Kill

[mafting]

Originally Posted by MichaelF

As an aside, it was bird flu (H5N1) that got the ban on the wild bird trade in place in Britain, not any conservation organisation at all

Quite. Despite a high profile campaign around the late 1980s. As a futher aside, the impact of that ban has been a massive hike in the price of once very common/cheap birds in aviculture. Birds such as waxbills are now hard to come by. If someone could conjure up a plan to 'remove non-native' species in France and Iberia, such as Indian Silverbills and Common Waxbills, they could make a few bob selling them to aviculturalists in the UK!

[Colin Key]

A bit more on the wind turbine incident in Crete:

www.epaw.org <http://www.epaw.org/

Colin

[Colin Key]

Originally Posted by mafting

If someone could conjure up a plan to 'remove non-native' species in ....... Iberia, such as ......... Common Waxbills, they could make a few bob selling them to aviculturalists in the UK!

How many can I put you down for mafting? There are hundreds around here and several pairs nesting in my garden at this moment (they breed all year round).

Just as an 'aside', I have been in the company of a ringer from Eire recently (very nice man despite my attitude on ringing) who informed me that a male Goldfinch in good condition would fetch €100 on the cage-bird market - quite amazing.

Colin

[mafting]

Originally Posted by Colin Key

Just as an 'aside', I have been in the company of a ringer from Eire recently (very nice man despite my attitude on ringing) who informed me that a male Goldfinch in good condition would fetch €100 on the cage-bird market - quite amazing.

Colin

Indeed. There is a thriving market in British birds. Some of which is perfectly legal, if they are close-ringed and bred in captivity of captive stock. But there is little to stop anyone close-ringing wild nestlings and then bringing them into captivity before they fledge, or trapping birds in their garden and keeping them out of view and breeding from them (or fitting doctored close rings) - it's illegal but proving it is not easy. A look online reveals that pretty much any species is available, legally, for sale -waders, tits, thrushes, chats, kingfishers. And Defra also occasionally issues licences to legally capture wild British birds for aviculture - snow buntings, redwings etc. Not for conservatuon, mind, just for maintainting captive populations for show/trade.