Three hunters were caught by the police after shooting a protected bird from the rocky outcrop behind the former Jerma hotel in Marsascala.

The incident, which happened this morning, was witnessed and reported to the police by a Birdlife member, who also took the photos above.

The hunters were also using illegal electronic lures.

“The police were quick to arrive on the scene and they also recovered the dead Shelduck,” the birdwatcher told Times of Malta.

The Shelduck is a protected species. It is a big, colourful duck, characterised by a dark green head and neck, a chestnut belly stripe and a red bill.

The hunters had stashed the duck away among the rocks but the police found it after being directed to the site by the birdwatcher.

The incident comes hot on the heels of a proposal by the government’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit in front of the Ornis Committee for an amnesty on stuffed birds and exorbitantly high fines for illegal hunting.

A recent report in Times of Malta also pointed out that one of the first tasks of government’s hunting advisor Albert Pace, a licensed trapper and hunter who was convicted for using illegal electronic bird lures in 2009, was to advise on the revision of regulations that resulted in the decriminalisation of the use of electronic bird callers.