The environmental NGO, Birdlife, has announced it has recovered a young Black Stork which was shot on Wednesday morning near the prime minister’s official summer residence at Girgenti.

The bird had severe injuries and was recovered from a reservoir near the former Inquisitor’s palace. It had been shot by hunters operating illegally in the area.

The bird was part of a small flock that was first spotted over Gozo. Another Black Stork was reportedly shot over Ta’ Ċenċ in Gozo.

The Black Stork, officially called Ciconia Nigra, is a rare visitor to Malta, Birdlife said. It is a protected species according to Maltese law, given the highest protection according to Annex  I of the EU Birds’ Directive.

Birdlife’s Head of Conservation, Nick Barbara, blamed two amnesties given in the past years by the Labour and Nationalist administrations which remained largely unverified.

The first amnesty was granted by a Labour administration in 1997 and the hunters declared 240,000 taxidermy birds. The second amnesty was granted by the Nationalist administration in 2003 and yielded a further 282,000 taxidermy birds. In total half a million birds.

The numbers were never verified and hunters concluded they could go on hunting.

Furthermore, the enforcement authorities are severely under-manned.

Birdlife CEO Mark Sultana appealed to Prime Minister Robert Abela to take steps to curtail this widespread illegality.