Two undercover operations conducted by BirdLife Malta have shown that the illegal trade in wild birds is rampant in Malta’s capital city Valletta, BirdLife revealed today.

Video footage of the illegal trade recorded by BirdLife was passed on to the ALE and MEPA, who carried out a joint operation on the Bird Market last Sunday. Police informed BirdLife that several dealers illegally selling wild caught birds were apprehended.

The sale of any wild caught bird is illegal under national legislation, and birds can only be sold if they are shown to be captive bred. All captive bred birds need to be fitted with closed rings as chicks as a means of verifiying that they are not wild birds, as specified by the law (1). Furthermore the rings need to be approved by the Director of Environment Protection Directorate within MEPA.

“To prevent commercial exploitation of wild birds and the damage this can cause to wild populations, it is illegal under EU law to trade in all wild birds protected under the Birds Directive (2). While Malta negotiated a five year phasing out period for only the trapping of seven species of finch, which ends on December 31st of 2008, the sale of wild finches is illegal at a national and European level (3).” said Dr Andre Raine, BirdLife Malta’s Conservation Manager.

Wild birds that were filmed being sold openly by different traders included wild caught Linnets, Greenfinches, Serin and Chaffinches. BirdLife stated that the birds could have originated from local trappers or from traders illegally bringing the birds in from neighbouring countries.

Geoffery Saliba, BirdLife Malta’s Campaigns Co-ordinator applauded the swift actions of the police in acting on the reports, and added: “While it is vital that these individuals are apprehended, it is equally important that they are dealt with seriously in the courts. We know that the Bird Market in Valletta has been raided several times in the past, but these traders still feel comfortable openly breaking the law. It is pointless apprehending people breaking the law unless they are given substantial fines which would act as a real deterrent to them in the future.”

Notes:
1) Ln 79 of 2006 article 2 states that – “captive bred” means a bird which is close ringed and which has been hatched and bred from parental stock in a human controlled environment; and; “close ringed” means a full-circle ring without any cut or interruption therein and which cannot be placed on a bird’s foot other than when such bird is of a very tender age, such ring being approved by the Director;

2) Article 6 of the Birds Directive – Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3, Member States shall prohibit, for all the bird species referred to in Article 1, the sale, transport for sale, keeping for sale and the offering for sale of live or dead birds and of any readily recognizable parts or derivatives of such birds. In this case, Article 1 refers to all wild birds occurring in the European Union.

3) Finches are further considered under Section 8 in LN79 of 2006, which states that – Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (e) of regulation 4 and regulation 7, and without prejudice to the provisions of regulation 9, finches may be deliberately captured by traditional nets known as clap-nets exclusively for the purpose of keeping them in captivity in accordance with the intermediate targets provided for in the Treaty

Photo shows a video still with a red circle around the legs of an un-ringed wild finch.