BirdLife Malta said yesterday that over the last four weeks it had received three birds of prey that had serious gunshot wounds and had also been confined in small cages for extended periods of time.
The first two were common kestrels, and yesterday morning BirdLife received a honey buzzard.
They were in such bad shape, it added, that they had to be put down.
All three birds had old gunshot injuries to their wings, which had subsequently healed in terrible condition. The honey buzzard had a badly fractured wing and one of its toes had been blown off. It had battered and broken wing and tail feathers, showing that after being shot it had been kept in a small, confining cage, BirdLife said.
As the spring migration of honey buzzards has yet to start, this bird was evidently a victim of the previous hunting season, and had spent the subsequent months kept illegally in captivity, it said.
BirdLife Malta conservation manager André Raine said: “It is terrible to think of such majestic birds first being shot and then being kept in tiny cages for many months. The unfortunate result is that their wings didn’t heal and remained shattered and broken.
“Birds of prey rely on their incredible powers of flight both to hunt and to migrate the vast distances between their breeding and wintering grounds. If it is possible to rehabilitate injured birds of prey, every effort is made to do so and they are then released back into the wild. Unfortunately, in these three cases, the birds were in such bad condition and their wounds were so severe that they had to be put down by a veterinarian.” Dr Raine added.
Common kestrels and honey buzzards are protected species in the European Union. They migrate over Malta every year and, despite being legally protected, often fall victim to illegal hunting activity. Under both Maltese law and the EU Birds Directive it is illegal both to shoot these species and to capture and keep individuals from the wild.
The spring hunting season in Malta will open on 10 April, said BirdLife, adding “for the fourth consecutive year in direct violation of the Birds Directive since Malta joined the European Union”.
Dr Raine said: “BirdLife Malta is concerned that, yet again, this spring hunting season will be used as a blanket season to kill birds of prey and other protected species by many hunters in Malta. In the light of the EU executive’s decision to send a supplementary warning letter to Malta, we demand that the Maltese government retract its decision and outlaw spring hunting once and for all.”