On the trail of poachers illegally trapping China's rare songbirds

Key Highlights

• The poachers are here. Slim and stealthy, Silva heads out first.
• We eventually follow with our cameras. Slowly, we tread through a line of trees, into a small clearing.
• We only spot the bird net when it is a few inches from our faces. Each year, tens of thousands of birds are caught in nets across China for the pet trade, or for meat.
• The pandemic and a property crisis have turned the economy sluggish - so catching and selling songbirds on the black market is a low-cost and often low-risk way of making a large profit.
• A pretty songbird, such as a Siberian rubythroat, can often sell for nearly 2,000 yuan (£210; $280), which is more than many farmers earn in a month."I want to protect them on this Earth controlled by humans," Silva says.