New culling order against starlings at Malta International Airport

The Prime Minister has signed a new order for the culling of starlings within 200 metres of Luqa airport and 50 metres of the approach lights that indicate the runways, in the interest of air safety.

The culling will now go on until March 2013, after a first phase of culling was carried out earlier this year to eliminate the birds from runway areas because of the danger of bird strikes.

In 2009, the government had amended the hunting laws that prohibited the shooting of birds inside and around the Malta International Airport and the Gozo Heliport, just weeks after a bird strike had hit US Airways Flight 1549 after leaving New York’s LaGuardia airport, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Hudson River.

A bird strike is a collision between a bird and aircraft, usually occurring when the bird hits either the windscreen or gets sucked into the engines. At times leading to fatal accidents, the bird strike that hit the US Airways flight led to a loss in engine power.

As a derogation from the Birds Directive, which prohibits the shooting of birds in sanctuaries such as the airport, the culling is only temporary. The government has said the authorisation would be considered “only after alternative methods ensuring air safety have proved unsuccessful.”

A highly gregarious species, starlings tend to gather in huge flocks, forming tight formations in the air, expanding and contracting and changing shape. In airports such as Kennedy International Airport, falcons are used to scare away ducks, geese and other birds that could collide with plane engines. Falconry is also used at Kennedy International Airport to scare away gulls and other birds.

The starling is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a “species of least concern”, meaning they do not qualify as a threatened species.