Bird migration report challenges government claims

The government's claims that the number of turtle doves and quails killed over Malta is insignificant on an international level have been rubbished in a BirdLife report published yesterday.

The study underlines the international importance of Malta on the European-African migratory flyway and says that large numbers of species are being killed every year during migration.

BLM also claims that the impact of illegal hunting pressures on raptor populations can have serious repercussions on their conservation status.

The 34-page report was compiled by BirdLife Malta's conservation manager Andrè Raine, a wildlife biologist.

It is based on ring recoveries that were used to analyse the international importance of Malta's position along one of the main European-African bird migration routes. International ring recoveries came from 1,188 individuals, representing 120 species.

Birds from a total of 48 countries, 36 in Europe and 12 in Africa, were found to pass over Malta during the spring and autumn migration. Ring recoveries from a total of 75 species, representing 35 countries, were found to have been killed in Malta.

Data on the impact of hunting and trapping of protected species presented in the report explains some of the frustrations vented by European conservationists and hunters who are legally obliged to observe the Birds Directive in their countries.

The majority of the ring recoveries came from birds that are protected, non-huntable species.

Ring recoveries only represent the number of ringed birds found or reported to BirdLife and, in reality, recoveries from ringed birds shot or trapped in Malta are dramatically under-represented, the report says.

Hunters and trappers are very unlikely to report ringed birds, BLM said. This is further accentuated by the fact that many areas (such as Delimara and Mizieb) are inaccessible to fieldworkers during the peak hunting seasons due to the dangers involved.

The five most commonly recorded countries for birds killed in Malta are Finland, Sweden, Tunisia, Italy and Germany. Together, these five countries make up over half of all recoveries.

The five most common species ringed overseas and killed in Malta are the osprey, the common kestrel, the turtle dove, the night heron and the Caspian tern. Of these species, only the turtle dove can be legally hunted in Malta under current legislation.

Of the 75 species recorded as ringed overseas and killed in Malta, 20 per cent were raptors (birds of prey) and 33 per cent were listed under Annex 1 of the Birds Directive.

Analysis of aerial photographs from 2001 found a minimum of 5,317 trapping sites. The method employed by trappers, who utilise large clap nets and live decoy birds, is a successful way of trapping entire flocks of finches. Coupled with the large number of registered trappers in Malta, this means that very few migrants reaching Malta remain free long enough to move inland to where scientific bird ringing normally takes place, the study notes.

Large flocks of migrants are almost entirely caught by trappers who position their trapping sites along the edges of cliffs where migrating finches first arrive.

A total of 112 foreign-ringed finches from 19 countries were recorded from the BirdLife database. The five most common countries recorded from ring recoveries are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia.

The trapping of finches in Malta is effectively causing the local extinction of the Maltese breeding populations and impacting on migrating finch flocks from a range of countries throughout their European breeding range, the report says.

Turtle doves have been recovered from eight countries within the species' breeding range. Half of the ring recoveries of turtle doves come from Italy and a further quarter come from the Czech Republic.

The vast majority of ring recoveries of common quail originate from Italy.

The results of this analysis are particularly important when considering the conclusions of the derogation report issued by Malta defending its intention to allow spring hunting.

In this report, the Maltese government claims that birds from both species come from the entirety of their breeding ranges, in an attempt to show that what happens in Malta is insignificant in terms of the European populations of these species.

"The data presented by BirdLife Malta shows that the government's argument for defying EU law will never hold ground," the report concludes.