BirdLife: Protected bird species disappearing over Malta during hunting season

Environmental NGO BirdLife said a number of protected birds migrating through Malta have disappeared throughout the past weeks.

“Information gathered by BirdLife Malta over the past days indicates a continuous indiscriminate persecution of highly protected species both on land and at sea, with enforcement resources struggling to keep up with reports,” the NGO said.

Species targeted over the past two weeks include Lesser Spotted Eagles, a Short-toed Snake Eagle, Black Storks, Black Kites and European Honey-buzzards.

BirdLife said a GPS-tracked Black Kite that started its life in the Czech Republic stopped transmitting after it migrated to Malta. OT-093, as it has been coded, was one of two young Black Kites rescued from their nest near the city of Ostrava in northeast Czech Republic, after the birds were abandoned by their parents.

“OT-093 started off its journey on 23rd September heading southwest through Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia. It crossed the Adriatic Sea on the 29th of September, and kept flying south until its last night in southern Sicily on 2nd October. On 3rd October it continued south to Malta, flying past Gozo at 2:30pm, and reaching the Rabat/Dingli areas an hour later, settling to sleep for the night in trees in Fawwara. No further positions outside its roosting spot were received the following morning,” the NGO said.

The case is the second one in a week of a tracked bird which went missing in Malta. Earlier last Monday, a Honey-buzzard that arrived exhausted to the island, crash-landing in an apartment in Pietà on the 15th of September, was released on Comino, after it was nursed back to health by BirdLife Malta. Upon its release on 2nd October, the bird headed south past Buskett, and continued further south in the afternoon, with its signal going dead around 4:30pm in the limits of Birżebbuġa. In both cases the trackers fitted on the birds are believed to have been destroyed upon the birds being killed.

“It is evidently an open season for the collection of prized species for taxidermy, and it is clearly not happening just on land but at sea, taking advantage of the scant police resources on land, absent at sea,” commented Nicholas Barbara, Head of Conservation at BirdLife Malta.

The hunting season at sea sees over 290 licensed hunters using boats to chase down migrating birds in open water outside 3 km from the coast. A Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) proposal in front of the ORNIS Committee which shall be meeting  tomorrow, is proposing such a distance to be shortened to 1 km, bringing hunters close to  the shore.

“It is an unnecessary move which will serve only to decimate more protected birds that might survive the current killing season in Malta, only to face guns also at sea, where enforcement is even more difficult,” the NGO said.

BirdLife Malta appeals to members of the public to come forward with any information on such incidents to be able to assist police in executing their duties of enforcing hunting illegalities. Reports can be made by phone to EPU on 119 and to us on 2134 7645/7925 5697 or by email to [email protected].