Police in the U.K. recently announced the seizure of more than 5,000 eggs belonging to several wild bird species, following nationwide raids in November 2024. While no arrests have been made in this case, the investigations are continuing.
The seizure, the largest of its kind in U.K. history, was part of an international crackdown on the illegal trade in wild bird eggs, called Operation Pulka, that originated in Norway in June 2023. As part of it, authorities in other countries have so far arrested 16 people and seized more than 56,000 eggs from countries such as Australia, where nearly 3,500 eggs, believed to be worth A$400,000 ($251,000), were seized.
“Operation Pulka reveals a troubling reality: the illegal trade in wild bird eggs persists in the UK, with international criminal networks working at all levels to target species for profit or private collections,” Richard Scobey, executive director at TRAFFIC, an international NGO that monitors the illegal wildlife trade and is assisting in Operation Pulka, told Mongabay by email. “This record-breaking seizure is not just a win for enforcement but a wake-up call to redouble efforts in tackling wildlife crime.”
The trade in wild bird eggs became popular in the 19th century as people sought to build up their own private collections, sell them for a profit to other collectors, or raise hatchlings of rare birds from the eggs. Collectors can remove whole clutches of eggs from the wild, and in recent years criminals have been taking eggs or chicks from bird-of-prey nests and trading them illegally across the world, especially for falconry, according to the U.K.’s National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU).
In the U.K., collecting wild bird eggs is illegal under multiple laws, including the Wildlife Countryside Act of 1981, which makes it a criminal offense to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird, its nests and eggs. Similar laws exist in other countries, such as the U.S. Some species, such as the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), commonly sought by falconers, are banned for commercial trade under CITES, the global wildlife trade convention.
Mark Harrison, an officer with the NWCU, said in a statement that while egg collection crimes are less common than they once were, the recent seizures show that the trade thrives. “These criminals are very well organized and connected. The rarer a species is, the higher its demand and value to these criminals,” he said.
The 2021 Birds of Conservation Concern report, published by the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), placed more than a quarter of U.K. birds on its list of high conservation concern, indicating they’re declining and threatened by human-caused climate change, diseases such as the avian flu, and illegal hunting. Wild bird egg collection adds to these threats as it prevents the birds from breeding.
Banner image of wild bird eggs recently seized in the U.K., courtesy of Gloucestershire Police.
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