2023 Wall calendar І Farmland birds of Cyprus

The BirdLife Cyprus 2023 calendar is dedicated to the farmland birds of Cyprus.

Amongst them is the noisy Black Francolin Francolinus francolinus, the ubiquitous Crested Lark Galerida cristada, the unmistakable European Roller Coracias garrulus, the ‘wise’ Little Owl Athene noctua and the ‘enigmatic’ Stone Curlew Burhinus oedicnemus. But that is not all; from one end of the island to the other, the Cypriot countryside is home to a great variety of birds to be discovered, filling our rural landscapes with wingbeats and song.

We must not forget however that farmland birds are among the most threatened bird groups in Europe. The main threats they face are the abandonment of traditional, non-intensive agriculture on the one hand and the intensification of agricultural practices (e.g. monocultures, excessive use of pesticides) on the other, a 'pattern' that we also see happening in Cyprus in recent decades.