Every year, millions of songbirds are “massacred” during the Mediterranean olive harvest — getting sucked up into crop machines at night — as they sit and roost in the olive bushes, a report says.
British birds, like robins and greenfinches, make up most of the casualties.
“Numbers of farmland birds in Europe have plummeted by 55 per cent over the last three decades,” said Martin Harper, director of conversation at the Portugal-based Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, in an interview with The Independent.
“This is another shocking example of how modern agricultural practices are impacting our bird populations, including some UK species passing through the region,” he charged.
More than 2.5 million birds are killed each year in Andalusia, Spain, by harvesting tractors, according to experts. Most can spot the machines and make it out of the olive bushes during the day, but nighttime is a whole different story.
“The machinery is perfectly fine if used during the day, as birds are able to see and escape while they are operating,” said lead RSPB researcher Vanessa Mata. “However, during the night they use very strong lights which confuse the birds and lead to their death as they are ‘sucked in’ by the tractor.”
Experts have been calling on Spanish officials to do something about the yearly slaughter.
“Local governments and local, national and international communities urgently need to assess the impact of the practice,” Mata said, “and take steps to end it.”