A great white egret with a shattered leg and several shotgun injuries, including to the neck and the lower mandible of the beak and the left and right wing has been recovered by BirdLife.

It said the bird was first seen at the Simar Reserve at about 11 a.m. but three great white egrets were earlier seen heading inland from the sea at Dingli.

The Birdlife team lost sight of them over Verdala Castle.

After the great white egret was seen dying at Simar, another two great white egrets were spotted at the Ghadira reserve, suggesting that they might have been the three birds seen in the morning.

Birdlife said that Raptor Camp had recorded over 400 illegal hunting and trapping incidents between September 12 and today. These incidents included the witnessed killing of a lesser-spotted eagle, two black storks and a significant number of marsh harriers, honey-buzzards and falcons.

Raptor Camp members also had footage of a wide range of illegalities, including the shooting down of a marsh harrier and a honey-buzzard on the same day at two separate locations, an illegal trapper at a gigantic wader trapping site and a poacher standing in the middle of the road at Zurrieq with a shotgun scanning the skies for a lesser-spotted eagle.

Since the peak of migration began on September 17, BirdLife Malta recovered 15 shot protected birds, including today’s great white egret. Another four shot protected birds were among the 201 shot protected birds recovered on September 20 and 21 from the Mizieb woodland, in the largest wild bird crime scene in Maltese history, Birdlife said.