GozoNews.Com

BirdLife Malta ornithologists Joe Sultana and John J. Borg are taking part in an international team invited to Libya to study one of the Mediterranean’s rarest seabirds, the Lesser Crested Tern (Sterna bengalensis).

Libya holds more than 99% 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.

Ornithologist Joe 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. Joe and John will help to 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 comes as a result of a workshop for the Mediterranean Action Plan for the Conservation of Marine and Coastal Birds held in 2005. As well as counting the number of breeding birds, the project will also aim to fit individually numbered rings to as many young birds as possible. The scientific ringing of birds is a vital way of understanding migration patterns to aid in the conservation of the species. By ringing these birds, conservationists will get a better understanding of where the population moves to after the breeding season, which will allow them to better protect vital wintering areas.

The project was initiated by the Libyan Environment General Authority in co-ordination 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).

“Malta and Gozo are internationally important for seabirds, despite their small size. We have approximately 10% of the world’s population of Yelkouan Shearwaters and the biggest European Storm Petrel colony in the Mediterranean. BirdLife Malta has a tremendous expertise in seabird research and bird ringing and this visit demonstrates how we can now start to share this knowledge with our colleagues abroad”, concluded Mr. Sultana.