Update 12pm - Adds new rules
Hunters must report birds caught via a telephone reporting system and will be forbidden from hunting the Red Breasted Merganser when the autumn hunting season opens on Thursday.
The telephone system replaces the previous obligation to report through the Carnet de Chasse, which was phased out earlier this year.
The season runs until January 31, with that for turtle dove ending earlier, on September 30. Wild rabbit hunting is permitted until December 31.
Although the turtle dove hunting season ostensibly runs until September 30, it is subject to a maximum national quota of 7,000 birds.
A hunting curfew will be in place between September 15 and October 7 during which shooting is not permitted after 7pm. On Sundays and public holidays, hunting will only be permitted between two hours before sunrise and 1pm.
On all other days, hunters can shoot birds on land between two hours before sunrise and two hours after sunset.
The hunting of birds at sea will be allowed between 1 October and 31 January, although it will be restricted to between 7pm and two hours before sunrise for the first week of that period, running until October 7.
The group Kaccaturi San Ubertu called for reciprocal respect from hunters and countryside users.
It called on its members to respect all hunting laws and regulations and to report any illegalities on telephone number 119.
In a statement, the parliamentary secretariat for animal rights said there had been "exemplary improvements" in compliance over the past three years. It however said that laws would be strictly enforced, with law-breaking hunters liable to a €5,000 fine, prison sentence and hunting license ban.
Meanwhile, Birdlife Malta reminded those who like bird watching that the coming weeks will bring "a spectacle in the skies" as the autumn migration slowly picks up.
The stars of this spectacle are birds of prey, though a number of other birds can already be observed at this exciting time of year, such as herons, egrets, bee-eaters and smaller passerines.
As the weather starts changing, raptors flying from Sicily will start landing on Malta with marsh harriers and honey buzzards usually flying in in their hundreds, looking for a place to spend the night.
The protected marsh harrier. Photo: Aron Tanti