A Cinnamon bittern trapped in a mist net set at night in Cambodia's Kampong Chhnang province

Bird hunting in Cambodia & mainland Southeast Asia

Across mainland Southeast Asia, hunting is silently decimating populations of birds once plentiful. Mist nets especially are responsible for the death of millions of migratory birds, who are declining across the region. Our investigation in Cambodia found bird hunting and trade widespread throughout the country, driven by low income and weak law enforcement.

This story was published in 2025 in Dialogue Earth Bird hunting in Cambodia driven by poverty and lax enforcement (English) and 为何柬埔寨“打鸟”屡禁不止? (Chinese), CamboJA News (Khmer) and summarized in Le Petit Journal (French).

A short video focusing on the role mist nets play in this regional crisis was published with Mongabay and received more than 10k views across YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. Several photos were awarded in Bird Photographer of the Year 2024 & 2026, as well as Delta Birding Festival photography competitions. The winning photographs were profiled in local outlets Kiripost and Cambodianess.

A farmer in the Cambodian province of Kampong Chhnang sets a mist net next to a rice field.
Netting is one of the most common tools deployed by hunters. It’s cheap, easy to use and indiscriminate
Empty beer cans tied together and attached to the nets rattle when a bird is caught, alerting the hunter sleeping nearby
Bitterns for sale in Orussey market in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh
An Asian openbill stork for sale in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Tumpung market, where birds are on sale almost daily
Half a dozen stalls outside the city of Battambang on the road to Phnom Penh displays more than a dozen species of wild birds on sale
Once a “superabundant” migratory species, the yellow-breasted bunting was listed as critically endangered in 2015 due to excessive trapping for meat across China and Southeast Asia
A white-breasted waterhen caught in rice fields in south-west Cambodia’s Preah Sihanouk province
A well-known bird trading site in Kampong Cham province in Central Cambodia
A ranger stands near the remains of a bird of prey in northern Cambodia’s Phnom Kulen National Park.
Mist nets used for trapping birds are cheap and easy to find in markets across Cambodia and Southeast Asia
Wild birds for sale in the central market of Koh Kong's provincial capital in Southwestern Cambodia
The protected wetland of Koh Kapik, a Ramsar site, in the south-western province of Koh Kong
Bird hunting in Cambodia, 2021-2025

Unlike the snaring crisis and trade in iconic species, bird hunting for the bushmeat trade has failed to attract the attention of both the media and conservationists, in part because the issue spreads well beyond protected areas. Researchers warn that the region ‘may eventually succumb to the spectre of “empty wetlands and farmlands,” on top of the “empty forest” syndrome already being documented’.

Do get in touch if you are interested by this story, either as a media or a nonprofit. I keep covering this issue in Southeast Asia and I’m open to collaborations. Another reason for bird trapping is for the Buddhist practice of life release.

Bird hunting in Southeast Asia | 2025 | Nature & Conservation | Comments (0)