The stork symbolises birth, but during the course of a flock’s passage over Malta it has come to symbolise death and the impact that hunting in Malta has on conservation efforts in Europe.

One of the white storks that was shot this week came from a centre in Udine where a project to reintroduce the species in Italy has been going on for the past 19 years. They had become extinct there several centuries ago.

Among the young storks migrating over Malta are the juveniles raised by Bruno Dentisani and his team.

“The two storks with coloured rings noted in Malta were on their first migration.

“I’m very sad to hear the news that at least one of them is dead... killing such a beautiful bird for no reason can only be described as stupid,” said Mr Dentisani, who is the scientific ringer at the centre.

Killing such a beautiful bird for no reason can only be described as stupid

He said if things had happened differently, the storks would have stopped in Africa for two or three years.

They would have migrated back to Europe once they reached sexual maturity, searching for their home ground to find a mate and reproduce.

Mr Dentisani has ringed 152 young storks over the past two decades. The information gathered from different sightings of the young he has helped raise reveal interesting facts about the birds and their migration.

He said there were two or three main migratory routes for storks: through the Bosphorous strait in Turkey, over England, and the Italian route over Malta into Africa, which was abandoned when the stork became extinct.

“We only learnt this recently. The last information we have of storks using this route date back to the Roman era.

“So it is extremely interesting to note that the storks have once again picked up the old route,” he said.

It may be interesting but possibly unfortunate since their chances of survival in Malta are slim. Three have already disappeared, and one has been confirmed shot.

On Wednesday a 26-year-old hunter from St Julian’s, Julian Tanti, admitted to 15 hunting-related charges, including the shooting of the stork a day earlier. He was barred from owning a licence to carry a firearm for four years, banned for life from hunting, and given a suspended prison sentence.

Meanwhile, another hunter from Mosta is being investigated by police after he stopped his car in the middle of the road on the outskirts of Ta’ Qali on Tuesday afternoon and started shooting at the storks from the street.

This is not the first time that the illegal hunting of protected species in Malta has affected European conservation efforts. This time last year, a juvenile Mediterranean osprey fitted with a satellite tracking device in Corsica as part of a project studying the dispersal and migratory movements of these protected birds of prey had gone missing after arriving in Malta.

It is believed the bird was shot in the Delimara area.

Perhaps the most notorious case is that of Sigmar, the lesser-spotted eagle that was part of a €1 million EU life project in Germany. It was shot in Birżebbuġa in September 2007 as it migrated from Germany to Africa.

The bird was operated upon in Germany, when some of the six pellets lodged in its body were also removed.

Sigmar did not survive and is now in a museum in Denmark.