Birds have mattered to humans as much in the past as they do in the present. They draw attention and they are present in culture as symbols of wilderness, beautifulness and joy. The plumage, the flight and the song are just a few of their attractive features. Nevertheless, different views have persisted throughout time and divided the perception of species into positive and negative appreciations, which concern their presence in the fields.

Insectivorous birds control arthropod species, which cause damage to agricultural crops. Buffon (1778) wrote about flycatchers: “[t]hey are harmless and even useful; they consume not fruits, but live upon flies, gnats, and other winged insects” (413-4). About the migratory Ortolan bunting, he described: “[t]hese birds make their appearance (…) especially in the warm districts, which are planted with vineyards; however, they touch not the grapes but eat the insects that prey upon the leaves and tendrils of the vines” (247-8). Omnivorous and granivorous birds were accused of being “noxious”, “harmful”, a “nuisance”, “pests” or “vermin”. In Extremadura (Spain), from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, the history of bird pests reveals the species involved can fit into several taxonomic groups, such as sparrows, crows, pigeons, larks, thrushes or cranes, although with a very heterogeneous economic impact (see Ferrero-Garcia et al 2014).

Austria-Hungary was very active in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the pioneer Declaration for the Protection of Birds Useful to Agriculture (1875) resulted from the efforts of the Hungarian Society for Protecting Animals and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, despite its virtues, the Declaration omitted lists of useful and noxious birds, which seems to have been the cause behind the vacillation (e.g. German) and even refusal of some States (e.g. the UK) to sign it (see Herman 1907). The first and second international Congresses of Ornithology (Vienna 1884 and Budapest 1891, respectively) prepared the stage for broader and stronger engagement of such countries.

Illustration from Otto Herman and J.A. Owen. Birds Useful and Birds Harmful, p.194. Manchester: University Press, 1909.

Portugal participated in this pioneer legal process for the protection of nature, and support the adoption of an international Convention for the Protection of Birds Useful to Agriculture since the beginning. Following an International Agriculture Congress, held in The Hague (1891), the French authorities initiated contacts with other European countries with the purpose of stopping the threats faced by several species of birds. Hintze Ribeiro, the Portuguese President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1893, was asked for the French authorities to join a group of States in this endeavour and appreciate a first draft of the legal text. António Maria Bartholomeu Ferreira, at the time a consular officer in Paris, attended a meeting on 25 June 1895, where representatives from 16 countries approved, albeit with difficulties, a regulation project that will circulate in the following years. The positive opinion gave by the Superior Council of Agriculture in Portugal (1896) was a step. An international consensus was also not obtained among a minimum number of States.

The negotiating path continued and the economic ornithology showed the impact of bird species on agricultural systems. A few years later, with the presence of the consul himself, T. Sousa Rosa, the Convention was adopted in Paris (1902) and its entries into force in 1906, with the signature of France, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Switzerland. Portugal joined them in 1907. Sixteen articles ruled the prohibition of killing birds included in the list nº 1 (species or groups of species named “useful”) at any time and in any manner, or to destroy their nests, eggs or hatching, set and use of traps, cages, nets, and any other means used to facilitate capture or mass destruction of birds, among other provisions. It also included a list of non-protected species or groups of species, the nº 2, designated “noxious”, according to the ideas and language of the time.

Much more could be said about the historical transnational process of protecting birds, and the consequences of international law in the internal regulations and policies, namely on hunting. But that is another story!

Ana Isabel Queiroz is a Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture (2007, Faculty of Sciences – University of Porto). Since 2009, she works as a researcher in the field of Environmental Humanities, first at NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities (2009-2019) and currently at the Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Cultures and Societies (CIDEHUS) from the University of Évora. Ana Isabel Queiroz also develops a project on the evolution of ecological thinking and environmentalism, using the relationship between humans and birds as a model.