For the volunteer watchers scanning southern Israel's wheatfields, protecting migratory falcons from poachers is a highly coordinated security operation.

The raptors may top the food chain in the wild, but here the predators can themselves become the prey.

Many protected species of migratory birds spend their winters in this agricultural area close to the Gaza Strip.

And some species are big business. A single falcon can fetch up to tens of thousands of dollars on the black market, especially in Gulf countries where falconry is a treasured tradition.

Meidad Goren, director of the Ramat Hanegev Birding Center, told AFP that poaching has soared in recent years.

Falcons are captured alive by Bedouin Arabs living in Israel's Negev desert to be domesticated or smuggled to neighbouring countries, he said.

Using binoculars to observe one bird perched on a nearby pylon, Goren noted: "It has a ring. It's a peregrine falcon that was captured and escaped."

The raptors feed on small birds attracted to the wheat, waiting motionless and........

© Al Monitor