Authored and illustrated by Victor Falzon, field teacher at Ghadira nature reserve, the book promotes the beauty and diversity of wild birds among children who are the targeted audience.

The book also serves as a beginner’s guide to those children who wish to take up bird-watching as a hobby. BirdLife hopes that by encouraging environment-friendly pastimes, such as bird observation, among the younger generation, practices such as bird hunting and trapping will eventually decline. The book covers 100 birds and is in full colour throughout. It is written in Maltese and is free of scientific jargon.

BirdLife Malta president Joseph Mangion and officials of the society’s education unit called on Minister Louis Galea to present him with copies of the book. In the coming weeks BirdLife will be distributing a free copy of this publication to every primary school in the country for its reference library. The publication of the book was made with the financial assistance of Sveriges Ornitologiska Förening (SOF – BirdLife in Sweden).

BirdLife thanked the Education Minister for his support not only in providing personnel for the education of those school children who visit Ghadira and Is-Simar nature reserves, but also in supporting the Society’s green campaigns, such as Dinja Wahda, in schools. BirdLife has been running school campaigns for the past 20 years.

The book is available for sale from BirdLife outlets and bookshops.