Millions of birds travel from Sub-Saharan Africa to nest all over Europe, in barns in English villages, or on telegraph poles in Prague and back again each year to feed in Africa. They funnel across the Strait of Gibraltar, over Tarifa and, eventually, on into Europe. Their passage is overlooked by most.

Siren intends to focus attention on this overhead miracle in which birds as small as swallows travel thousands of miles. Tarifa is the centre point of the trip, as Europe and Africa come within 14 km, so the perilous sea crossing (during which up to 15% of the birds die each year) is minimised. Cuckoos, black storks, white storks, red kites, ospreys, honey buzzards, hen harriers, snipe, oystercatchers, avocets, puffins, bee-eaters, gulls, wheatears, wag-tails, warblers, the list of birds who use this crucial bird highway is huge. The effects of any adverse changes at Tarifa will be felt in bird populations throughout Europe. Along their epic journeys, the birds encounter many hazards.

A Siren Ecocentre at Tarifa would disseminate information all over Europe to the many migratory humans who come through on their holidays each year. As the Mediterranean basin is also a crucial hotspot of biodiversity in which many plants and animals have evolved uniquely, but where human activity is acutely destructive, Siren intends to encompass not just birds, but flora, sea mammals, amphibians and other wildlife in its conservation and education work.

Key outputs:

• Siren has purchased a 25 acre coastal nature reserve which was under threat as land for sale for private housing development.

• Working with illustrator Afra Kingdon, Siren has produced a poster to raise awareness of the bird migration, and to direct people here to learn more about migration. Siren hopes to work with ornithological organisations and stations in the Mediterranean to distribute the posters along other crucial points on the bird's migration path.

  Migration portal: Click here to read more about what migration is, why birds fly up to 50,000km every year, which routes they take and how they prepare for their epic journeys.

• Siren would like to work with local ornithological groups, such as Collectivo de Ciguena Negra (based on the main road through Andalucia), to establish a centre for wildlife where people may come and marvel at the migration and gain understanding of the ecology of the migrating birds. The centre would also host education days for school groups. Interpretation facilities will be diverse from live video imaging of migrant birds to telescopic viewing facilities and computer satellite tracking computers.

• Working with Jerez Zoo's state of the art injured bird veterinary hospital, Siren would like to establish a programme of taking birds into schools for children to experience them face to face.

• Education programmes will get children out into nature undertaking hands-on observation of wildlife as well as arts-based activities, such as drawing, video 'documentaries' making, theatre, music and dance.

• The children will be interacting with scientists as they carry on their established research project, seeing birds in the hand and learning direct from experts how to carry out research.