Komitee gegen den Vogelmord e.V. Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)

Komitee gegen den Vogelmord e. V.
Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)

  • deutsch
  • english
  • italiano
Spenden-Button

Bird trapping nets in Italy

Nets are widely used in Italy to catch birds. There are different types of nets used in different regions for very different purposes.

Mist nets

Robin in an Italian mist net
Robin in an Italian mist net

In northern Italy, mist nets are usually well hidden in forests and bushes. The poachers either catch thrushes, which they in-turn use as live decoys for hunting (or sell to hunters for the same purpose), or the birds are killed and eaten.  All manner of passing birds get indiscriminately entangled in set nets - from dunnocks and wrens to sparrowhawks and the intended thrushes and robins, everything that is native to the mountain-forests of northern Italy can be found caught in them.

In southern Italy they are usually used to catch finches such as goldfinches and linnets, which are kept or sold as house birds. In Sardinia, poachers catch thrushes with mist nets to illegally sell them on to restaurants.

Clap nets

Finches for the pet trade are mainly caught with hammer nets in Sicily and Campania. They consist of two nets lying horizontally on the ground and held in tension by springs. Between the two nets there is an open area where food or water is often spread or on which attract birds stand. A bird catcher hidden not far from the catching point triggers the nets manually when birds gather on the open area. The net then breaks over the animals.