Hunters will have a fixed autumn season after regulations were changed to scrap the yearly wait for the opening and closing dates to be released.

The season is the same as previous years, between September 1 and January 31.

Hunters have long called for the season to have fixed dates given there was no legal controversy over autumn hunting. Until last year the opening and closing dates used to be announced by the government in a separate legal notice.

The law still allows the minister to revise the parameters of the hunting season at any time on the basis of relevant scientific advice on the conservation status of bird populations.

The government said hunting will be allowed between two hours before sunrise and two hours after sunset on any day between Monday and Saturday. Hunting will also be allowed between two hours before sunrise and 1pm on Sundays and public holidays.

The new regulations retained the evening curfew between September 15 and October 7, which coincided with the migration of raptors. Hunting in this period will have to stop at 7pm.

Bird conservationists had criticised the extension of the hunting deadline to 7pm last year since in previous years the curfew had been set at 3pm. Birds of prey are protected species and are known to find roosting sites in Malta in the evening on their southward voyage to Africa.

The hunting of birds at sea is allowed between October 1 and January 31 during the same times as those applicable to hunting on land. A 7pm curfew will apply between October 1 and October 7.

Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes said in a statement that the revision of the hunting curfew last year, which was accompanied by stricter enforcement, led to a decline in illegal targeting of raptors.

Mr Galdes noted that illegalities had dropped as a result of harsher penalties introduced over the past year while the presence of more enforcement officers in the field helped serve as a deterrent.