Fifteen incidents of illegal hunting of protected bird species have been filmed by Committee Against Bird Slaughter volunteers in the past three weeks.

CABS said in a statement four cases were fatal. The birds are honey buzzards (seven), marsh harriers (five), a kestrel and a grey heron.

Most of the incidents reported by CABS were observed in the Girgenti and Dingli area. Another poaching hotspot was Wied Qoton, near Safi, an area especially known for the shooting of birds of prey and the widespread use of illegal calling machines for quail and protected waders, CABS said.

CABS said that adding its observations to those of BirdLife Malta, there were 41 confirmed incidents of illegal shooting of protected birds since the beginning of the autumn season.

Read: Poachers could set a five-year record for illegal hunting - BirdLife

“Taking into account the massive unknown figure of unreported cases it can be assumed that a three figure number of protected birds were killed by Maltese poachers this month alone,” CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld said.

"After years of improvement this number is now pointing towards a slight increase in illegalities," he said.

Mr Hirschfeld said efforts made in the last 15 years needed to be backed by proper enforcement. He criticised parliamentary secretary Clint Camilleri for not doing anything to boost enforcement.

Read: Verbal shots fired between NGO and junior minister 

The key problems, CABS said, were lack of resources, trained officers and government support for the Administrative Law Enforcement, which last week saw its fourth inspector being transferred within four years.