BirdLife Malta kept up its pressure against a proposed bird study yesterday by announcing that the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has also criticised the proposal for the government study on Turtle dove and common quail migration over the Maltese Islands.

BirdLife said that in its assessment of the proposed study, BTO said: “The entire proposal is so badly written that it is not clear what is actually being proposed. We have tried to go beyond the wording to the context but find that is also badly presented.”

BTO is an independent, scientific research organisation that has been studying the populations, movements and ecology of wild birds in Britain since 1933. Its assessment of the proposed study draws attention to the many serious flaws in the methodology. Their critique reads: “The authors of the proposal appear to be unaware of the widely available literature on avian census methods.”

BirdLife Malta has sent a letter to the secretary of the Ornis Committee on 20 March requesting an explanation as to why the government has chosen this proposal. The Ornis Committee will be meeting to discuss the methodology today.