The autumn songbird trapping season opened today under what the Gozo Ministry described as “strictly monitored conditions”, with seven species of birds able to be trapped.

The Gozo Ministry, which is responsible for hunting, said that the Government's efforts to continue defending the Songbird Research Project yielded a positive result as, on September 19th, the European Court of Justice ruled on just one point from a list of alleged violations brought forward by the European Commission against Malta in Case C-23/23.

“The European Court of Justice based its decision on the content of the Legal Notices for 2020, 2021, and 2022, finding that these did not include a statement and justification regarding the lack of other satisfactory solutions. The European Court of Justice did not take a position on the other points raised by the European Commission, except to state that the Regulatory Framework (L.S. 549.145) is ‘clear and precise,’” the Ministry said.

“After analysing the decision of the European Court of Justice, the Government committed to ensuring that the Legal Notice declaring the research period for autumn 2024 would include a statement and justification confirming that there is no other satisfactory solution to gather information about where the songbirds come from during the autumn migration, other than through the Research Project,” the Ministry continued

It said that under this project, bird trappers capture songbirds using traps, check if they have a scientific ring, record the details on the ring form, release the birds from the same place, and report them using a toll-free phone system. The special license also encourages the trappers to send short videos showing the release of the migrating songbirds from the same place.

The government said that the statement in the 2024 Legal Notice includes seven reasons that confirm and justify the lack of other satisfactory solutions to answer the Research Project's question: “Where do the songbirds that migrate over Malta in the autumn after the breeding season come from?”

The reasons that were detailed by the Gozo Ministry in its statement are quoted below:

1. The Research Project is based on a study of seven migrating songbird species, which requires a different methodology than a study on non-migratory birds.
2. Ornithologists and bird ringers have not succeeded in collecting the necessary information to achieve the Research Project's declared goal through the use of mist nets.
3. The success of the Songbird Research Project does not depend on the participation of ornithologists, as shown by the number of foreign ring recoveries registered by licensed data collectors without the collaboration of ornithologists during the autumn songbird research periods from 2020–2023.
4. Bird ringers do not use lures and decoys, which are the key components of the trapping system that “allows for more selective bird capture than mist nets.”
5. Bird censuses are designed to monitor population size and status, including changes in populations during the breeding and wintering periods, and therefore cannot provide any insights into where the migrating birds come from.
6. It is not possible for migration studies to determine which migrating birds have a scientific ring and which do not, nor to record the details of such rings unless the relevant species are physically captured and examined.
7. The lack of information on ring recoveries of songbirds, along with unpredictable and complex factors such as weather, makes large-scale population modelling inadequate to determine the ecology of the songbird migration and therefore inadequate to determine the population regions from which the largest number of migrating songbirds come before passing over Malta.

“Therefore, the Government, after considering the recommendation of the Ornis Committee, is announcing the opening of the research period for the seven species of songbirds from today, October 20th, until December 20th, 2024, inclusive of both dates,” the Gozo Ministry said.

It said that anyone participating in the songbird research project under the authorisation of a special license issued in their name will be obliged to release back into the wild any songbird they capture immediately after checking if it has a scientific ring and report it immediately (species and number) by calling the toll-free number 8000 2020 from a registered mobile number in their name or by using the mobile app Game Reporting MT. The systems will confirm the report by sending back an SMS as confirmation.

They will also be obliged to record all the details on the ring form issued in their name, which is included with the special license, if they capture a songbird with a scientific ring; and report any bird that they capture with a scientific ring on the same day, as explained in the special license.

They are encouraged to take a short video showing the release of the songbirds from the same location where they were captured, as explained in the special license, and also required to report their research effort every time they participate in the research project, even if no songbirds were captured, by calling the toll-free number 8000 2020 from a registered mobile number in their name or by using the mobile app Game Reporting MT, as explained in the special license.

Anyone in possession of a special license for songbird research is legally obliged to observe all regulations related to this derogation, the ministry said.