A taskforce of over 20 countries in the Middle East and Europe will meet for the first time in Egypt Tuesday to discuss methods of curbing illegal practices that kill more than 20 million migrating songbirds each year.

The taskforce, established by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals in 2014, will meet from 12 to 15 July, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) statement reads.

The taskforce is expected to agree on a set of measures to reduce the scale of bird killing.

Shooting, netting and gluing birds to sticks are the main methods that hunters use to kill or capture songbirds as they migrate from their European breeding grounds towards their winter grounds south of the Sahara. 

Pigeons, birds of prey and waterbirds are also vulnerable to the killing practices.