A marsh harrier released by BirdLife was found dead two days later off Gozo, the NGO said on its Facebook page.

The illegal hunting situation is beyond remarkable, the NGO said.

On 5 November 2021 Birdlife said it was contacted by a kayaker who found the marsh harrier at sea at the northwest of Gozo. The bird had a ring on its leg which was removed, and details were passed on to the NGO. The ring on the dead bird read: "BirdLife Malta Valletta FF02841".

“On checking our database this turned out to be the rehabilitated Marsh-harrier we released at Comino Bird Sanctuary on the 3rd of November – just two days before,” BirdLife said.

This Western Marsh-harrier (Bagħdan Aħmar in Maltese) was originally rescued by the Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) of the Malta Police Force, after police were called to its find in Girgenti, limits of Siġġiewi, on 23 September 2021. The bird of prey had been seen to by the vets and was found to be suffering from a fractured ulna on its right wing as a result of shotgun injuries.

It was then passed over to BirdLife Malta for rehabilitation where after a period of confinement, the fracture on this bird healed. Further veterinary checks confirmed a good recovery of the injuries sustained, warranting the bird to be given more space to once again gather strength to fly. After clearance following further improvements on the conditions of this bird, we took advantage of a good weather gap between the storms of the past weeks to release this bird back into the wild to continue its migration.

The northwest of Gozo is one of many areas which sees the brunt of illegal hunting happening without much enforcement, enough to guarantee that birds such as this one don’t even get a second chance to make it in the wild after all the efforts at rehabilitating this bird to good health, BirdLife said.

 

According to the kayaker who found and sent photos of the bird: "Unfortunately it is difficult to see the injuries sustained in the shooting as the bird had rolled over in the water. Three of us clearly observed the injuries though. It was floating in the sea just to the south of San Dimitri Point on Gozo."