Sigmar's last flight

Sigmar, the rare, lesser-spotted eagle which had been found suffering from gun shot wounds at Birzebbuga last September, has had to be put down because of infections.

The bird was being treated at the University of Berlin after its shooting in Malta had caused outrage in both countries. The German press had nicknamed the eagle Sigmar after the country's Environment Minister.

Unfortunately it developed infections around its shinbone which had been shattered by lead pellets.

Vets looking after the bird took the decision when it became clear that the bird was suffering too much and that it would not be able to survive in the wild again.

The eagle had been sent to Frankfurt by Air Malta after the Malta Environment and Planning Authority made the necessary arrangements.

In Berlin it underwent an operation to stabilise its leg. Some of the six pellets detected through an X-ray scan were taken out.

Axel Hirschfeld, a member of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, who took the bird to Berlin, said the decision to put down the bird was "a sad and inevitable one".

The eagle formed part of a project involving 15 young eagles which had been taken from the nest in Germany when there was more than one sibling, and returned to the nest when it was old enough to prevent it from being killed by the older birds, a phenomenon known as Cainism.

The project was an EU life project costing €1 million in the state of Bradenburg.

German lesser-spotted eagles usually fly east towards the Bosphorus and then south into Africa. Some also fly south directly, over Italy and Malta and into Africa through Libya.