The discovery of injured or dead birds is a cause for concern for all law abiding hunters and the authorities should investigate each case publish their findings before conclusions were reached, Kaccaturi San Ubertu said.

The organisation said in a statement it was not uncommon for birds on migration, which mainly occurred at night, to collide with power lines, aerials or other obstacles during migration.

A study in the UK by the British Trust for Ornithology estimated that 100 million bird strikes occurred each year,  a third of which were fatal. Strangely, no such accidental injury or death was ever been reported in Malta by bird protection societies or the media and hunters were always blamed for all incidents.

The organisation said it did not exclude the possibility of protected birds being targeted by irresponsible gun owners and solicited the harshest penalties for any such crime.

However, it deplore the automatic condemnation of the media and the hysterical anti-hunting comments that followed every such incident before facts were officially established by an unbiased authority.

It called on the public to inform the police on 112 of any such find and said that the handling of injured or dead protected birds which could only be carried out by authorised personnel, was detrimental to injured birds and an offence.