The major threat to the 2.5 billion migratory birds the pass through the
Levant twice a year comes from hunters who shoot migrating birds both for food and for sport. In Lebanon, 2.6 million migratory birds are illegally shot or trapped every year. in such density that in 2017 "Hundreds of dead birds were left uncollected on the ground, and the soft breast feathers of eagles could be seen falling like snow as the birds were shot from the sky," according to Axel Hirschfeld, campaign and operations manager with the
Committee Against Bird Slaughter. ==References==