Endangered bird found injured in Ghadira

A rare Audouin's gull was yesterday found injured at Ghadira bay.

The bird was suffering from such a bad gunshot wound that one of the bones on its wing was exposed.

The Audouin's gull, known in Maltese as Gawwija geddumha ahmar, is a rare visitor to Malta with very few being documented. The gull is an endangered species in the Mediterranean.

The bird found yesterday was a young gull that fletched from the nest earlier this year.

The Audouin's gull is the only gull that is found exclusively in the Mediterranean. At first glance, it looks like the Yellow-legged gull but the former is slightly smaller and slimmer.

Breeding populations have been recorded in Algeria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. Juveniles have a brown-grey plumage and they start leaving their breeding grounds in mid-July.

In winter, the species spreads mainly on the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean.

The current population of Audouin's gull is estimated to be 18,700 pairs. The species is considered to be vulnerable because 90 per cent of them are concentrated in two colonies in Spain.

The bird is also included in Appendix I of the EU Birds Directive.

Hunting from land is forbidden on Sunday afternoons and the hunting season from seacraft is still closed. Gulls are supposed to be protected species.