With five per cent of the global population of Scopoli’s Shearwaters breeding in Malta, it is vital that these birds are protected, Birdlife Malta said yesterday.

Last year, the Malta-Gozo channel became Malta’s first internationally recognised marine Important Bird Area, partly due to the importance of the channel for Malta’s threatened shearwaters.

The Scopoli’s Shearwater, known as Ċiefa, is the largest of Malta’s shearwater species. During the breeding season these birds can be seen congregating in large numbers (500-1,000 birds) on the sea, behaviour known as ‘rafting’. As darkness falls they begin to leave the water and fly to their burrows in the cliffs to take the turn in incubating their egg or to feed their growing chicks.

Young members of Birdlife Malta’s nature club for children, Klabb Ħuttaf, on Friday evening took to the sea for a wildlife encounter with the enigmatic birds.