Trappers are flouting the law on a grand scale, according to BirdLife, which says it found illegally netted finches and golden plovers in 38 of 40 trapping sites surveyed.

BirdLife said that four of its teams visited 40 active trapping sites in different locations across Malta and Gozo on Saturday and found widespread abuse.

Of the sites visited 24 were illegally targeting finches and another 14 were directed at golden plover through the use of exceptionally large nets, artificial ponds, decoys and illegal tape lures.

There was no open season for golden plover this year and trappers could only catch song thrush but only one of the trapping sites was targeting this species, the organisation said.

BirdLife said that after it reported the illegalities five individuals were caught by the police, adding that video evidence would be submitted to help them in their investigations.

It said that two illegal finch trappers spotted at Fort Bengħisa on Saturday had been reported to the police a month earlier and had their equipment confiscated.

Malta is facing infringement proceedings by the European Commission for allowing trapping since joining the EU.

The government this year opened a song thrush trapping season under identical conditions to previous years, something which BirdLife said risked landing Malta in the European Court of Justice.