European Union for Bird Ringing denounces finch trapping in Malta as research activity

The European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING) slammed Malta’s scientific research used as an excuse for bird trapping, saying it was unlikely to provide useful scientific data.

“The poor-quality data being gathered does not meet acceptable scientific or ethical standards,” EURING said in a statement.

The government has been approving trapping seasons, banned in the EU, saying it was for research purposes, despite EU court rulings that have already imposed fines on Malta.

Minister Clint Camilleri, himself a trapper, continues to defend the abuse.

EURING warned about the impact of the decisions of the Maltese government, saying data from the scheme in Malta should not be included for research purposes.

“The intensity of finch trapping that is being undertaken is likely to have major impacts on bird movements and behaviour and is therefore not compatible with studying the natural movement patterns of these species. We have therefore asked all member schemes to ensure that their ringers do not associate with, or participate in, these activities.”

Seven finch species occurring in Malta (three breeding in small numbers, the rest entirely non-
breeding) have historically been trapped in large numbers for keeping as cage birds.

Trapping of these species is prohibited under the EU Birds Directive.

After reopening trapping seasons for finches in 2014, Malta was taken to court by the EU Commission and in 2018 the European Court of Justice found Malta guilty of breaching the EU Birds Directive when it allowed finch trapping seasons to resume.

Since 2020 the Maltese Government has proposed and  implemented a derogation to allow finch trappers to continue to catch finches with the stated aim of obtaining ring recoveries of birds marked elsewhere in Europe, so as to identify the breeding origins of finches wintering in Malta.

They were again taken to the European Court of Justice. The Court’s judgement, issued on 19 September, found Malta had failed to fulfil its obligations under the EU Birds Directive.

“The court concluded that the Government of Malta’s Finches Project does not establish a genuine research purpose and hence cannot be considered as being justified under the derogation of Article 9(1)(b) of the Birds Directive.”

Despite this, Malta has again opened a Finch trapping season from 20 October to 20 December, continuing to claim that it is a scientific study.