BirdLife Malta ornithologists Joe Sultana and John J. Borg will form part of an international team invited to Libya to study one of the Mediterranean’s rarest seabirds, the Lesser Crested Tern. Libya holds more than 99 per cent of the Mediterranean breeding population of this species. The Maltese experts will be passing on their skills to Libyan scientists by working with them to count and ring the tern population.

Mr Sultana said: “Surveys of this colony were carried out in the 1930s, but since then very little work has taken place. We are very pleased to be invited to share our skills in this latest research. The work is internationally important and will assist the Libyans in understanding the population so that they can protect it more effectively.”

The BirdLife Malta Ringing Scheme, which has been at the forefront of migratory bird research in Malta since 1965, will play a critical role in the Libyan project. The Maltese ornithologists will help train Libyan ornithologists on how to ring the birds, and Malta-addressed bird rings from the BirdLife Malta Ringing Scheme will be used during the programme.

The project is the result of a workshop for the Mediterranean Action Plan for the Conservation of Marine and Coastal Birds held in 2005. It was initiated by the Libyan Environment General Authority in coordination with RAC/SPA (the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas), set up by the Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP) and involves participants from BirdLife Malta, the Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica (Italy), the Biological Station of the Tour du Valat (France), Les Amis des Oiseaux (Tunisia), and Al Fateh University (Libya).