The opening of the ‘153 birds’ drawing and photography exhibition took place with great success on Friday, 18 November 2016 at Myloi Cultural Centre in Kaimakli, Nicosia where around 70 people came to enjoy many of the submissions received as part of the ‘153 birds’ drawing competition and winners received their prizes. Mayor of Nicosia, Mr. Constantinos Yorkadjis and the Commissioner for the Environment, Ms Ioanna Panayiotou gave opening speeches, awarded the winners and inaugurated the exhibition.

The starting point of the ‘153 birds’ campaign and the drawing competition was a successful event organised on Sunday 17 April 2016 at the Famagusta Gate Moat. On that day, more than 200 people of all ages joined this special event to listen to fairy tales and songs about birds and to draw pictures of birds. Within the two months that followed, we received more than 300 praiseworthy and creative art works from children, teens and adults.

The ‘153 birds’ Drawing and Photography exhibition marks the ending point of the ‘153 birds’ campaign through which we hope that both young and old had the opportunity to get informed on the rich avifauna of Cyprus and enjoy many of the drawings that we have received as well as the photographs which have inspired the participants. At the same time, we hope that the campaign shed light on the extend of the problem of illegal bird trapping in Cyprus which affects 153 bird species. Each year hundreds of thousands of birds are killed in Cyprus as a result of this illegal activity, with the worst year recorded to date being 2014 where it is estimated that up to 2.5 million birds were killed.

The exhibition is open to the public until Friday, 16 December 2016, at Myloi Cultural Centre (Kaimakli, Nicosia). You can visit the exhibition Monday – Friday from 10:00 – 13:00 & 16:00 – 20:00 and Saturday – Sunday from 11:00 – 18:00. For more information about the ‘153 birds’ campaign please visit www.birdlifecyprus.org/153birds

Funding for this project is from the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race, organized jointly by BirdLife International and SPNI (BirdLife in Israel).

Exhibition Photo