Why would anyone do this to a bird?

Vryssoules, Famagusta District, August 2009. A bird hangs high from a bamboo pole above a shack in an orchard. At first sight, it looks like a crow. But it isn’t. It is a globally threatened species, the Roller, Coracias garrulus. This is a bird strictly protected across the EU, and in Cyprus too, at least on paper. Member states have a clear obligation to take special measures to conserve this beautiful threatened migrant, which lives on insects. Cyprus has a particular part to play here, as we “host” a significant portion of the European breeding population of the Roller (the species spends the winter months in Africa). Indeed, Cyprus has already designated a number of Natura 2000 sites with the Roller in mind. For some though, it would seem the “host” role remains strictly in inverted commas…

BirdLife Cyprus,
www.birdlifecyprus.org

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.