In 40 years Cypriots have given Britain kebabs, easyJet, George Michael and Stavros Flatley.

Set against these varied gifts is a rather less palatable practice that is currently in full swing. In Cyprus they are trapping British robins, roasting them and eating them for dinner.

Many robins stay in Britain all year round but each winter thousands migrate in search of warmer climes, fetching up on the Mediterranean island.

Lured with false birdsong into netted thickets, or caught on sticks dipped in a natural glue, they are among a million songbirds slaughtered and sold to restaurants as part of an illegal multimillion-pound industry.
Conservationists say that the practice has made a significant comeback in the past three years and use of fine “mist” nets to trap the birds has risen by 35 per cent this autumn.

Snaring songbirds dates back to medieval times. The birds were considered necessary sustenance when meat was hard to get and expensive in Cyprus. In recent years, however, they have become gourmet fare, served as a delicacy known as ambelopoulia.

At the table they are generally gobbled down whole, after diners have spat out the feet and beak. Like the Queen of the nursery rhyme, two diners might eat four and twenty of the birds in a single sitting and pay €80 (£70) for the privilege.

“If I was on death row, I’d choose ambelopoulia with a little lemon and salt as my last meal,” a middle-aged, Oxbridge-educated senior civil servant said. “They’re incredibly tasty. I feel no more guilty eating them than pork or chicken.”

Oddly, the poachers are particularly prolific on the British military base of Dhekelia on the island’s eastern coast and on a live British firing range on Cape Pyla.

“It’s just bedlam there,” Martin Hellicar, the campaign manager for Birdlife Cyprus, told The Times.

Tim Stowe, the international director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: “For such a trapping free-for-all to be going on in an area supposedly controlled by British authorities is unbelievable and unacceptable.”

The British bases say that they are fighting a war on the illegal industry. In August they launched “Operation Freedom”, a campaign that aims to stop the songbird death squads and free birds trapped in nets or glued to “lime” sticks. The bases police have freed hundreds of trapped birds.

A key campaign was fought on October 2 when 75 soldiers from the Princess of Wales’s 2nd Royal Regiment joined local police in a dawn raid, seizing thousands of pounds worth of songbird trapping equipment. “Operation Freedom is still very much ongoing,” Captain Jim Mansell, a spokesman for British Forces, Cyprus, said.

“Only last night there was a significant haul of netting paraphernalia recovered from areas within the eastern sovereign base. Our police will do everything to stop this illegal activity.”

The Cypriot authorities insist they are doing their best to fight the songbird trade, saying that they have prosecuted more than 1,000 offenders in the past five years.

One trapping family was fined €25,000 last year. A villager from Larnaca, southeast Cyprus, was arrested after being caught with 1,000 lime sticks in his back yard “factory”.

Trapping birds with mist nets or lime sticks is strictly outlawed by international conventions because of their indiscriminate nature. Falcons have been found in poachers nets, as have endangered birds such as the Cyprus scops owl. The practice persists, however, because it is so lucrative.

It is also cruel. Birds ensnared on lime sticks placed on trees remain stuck until the trapper returns to kill them, usually with a toothpick to the throat. Many birds are ripped off alive, leaving their feet behind.

Like strategists in a drug war, some conservationists believe that it would be better to target the demand side of this illicit bird-killing industry.

“There’s never been a systematic and determined effort to stop restaurants serving ambelopoulia,” said Mr Hellicar. “Until that happens, this problem is going to persist.”

How to cook our feathered friends

Catch 12 robins, using mesh nets or by trapping them on twigs dipped in a sticky substance made from local fruits

Pluck them. Fry them whole in olive oil, or boil them (for 30 minutes) in stock of pourgouri (cracked wheat)

Serve with salt and lemon with the beaks and feet, with pourgouri as the main accompaniment

The robins, each no bigger than a British two-pound coin when plucked, are eaten whole, and the beaks and the feet are spat out on to a side dish. The eyes and the skulls are eaten by all save the fainthearted

Best appreciated with a glass of Scotch, Uzo, Cyprus brandy or zivania (a mind-numbingly strong grape-based aquaforte)

The robins can also be plucked and pickled in vinegar

Pigeon pie is served in Cyprus but robins are never served in pastry.

TimesOnline.co.uk