The few smuggled wild finches that survived as hundreds died while being held in quarantine were released earlier in the week, but the operation was far from successful.

This newspaper revealed earlier this month that close to 500 protected wild finches smuggled into the country had died while being held as evidence until court hearings related to the smugglers had been held.

As the court cases were concluded, the remaining birds that survived had to be released.

They were let back into the wild in Comino, but a number of them had to be taken back to quarantine since they had little chance of survival.

Read the whole story in The Sunday Times of Malta.