The very wary starling

The starling is one of the best-known birds in Europe and is a common wintering bird in Malta.

In most of Europe, starlings are tame and confiding. In Malta they are not protected and are shot in large numbers. The ones that survive are thus often very wary and keep away from humans.The first birds start to arrive in September but the majority visit us from October to early spring.

A couple of decades ago, a pair of starlings bred for the first time in the Maltese islands.

The bird continued to breed here irregularly but it is still a rare breeder, with only one or two pairs managing to breed every year.

The starling, sturnell in Maltese, is difficult to confuse with other birds. It is the size of a thrush – about half the size of a pigeon – with dark, glossy feathers. After moulting, in late summer, it gets a spotted appearance.

The spots appear because the new feathers have white tips. But with time, the tips wear off and by summer, or earlier, most of the white spots would have disappeared.

Starlings are mainly insectivorous and can play an important role in pest control. They also eat seeds and fruit.

These birds are also found in North Africa, the Middle East and all the way to India, Nepal and China.

They have also been introduced in many other parts of the world, including North America, Australia and New Zealand from where it migrated to surrounding regions.

Although the starling is still common, in some areas it has decreased by up to 80 per cent.

Tens of thousands are shot in Malta every year and if it were not for this ‘sport’, starlings would be much tamer and approachable and they would probably breed in larger numbers.

This article was published in The Times on 12.12.12

Shooting of the spoonbills

It happened again. Last Friday’s storm forced several flocks of migrating spoonbills to seek shelter in the Maltese islands. 

The spoonbills were wintering in Africa, possibly in Tunisia where I have seen this species wintering in saltpans. The spoonbill can be found in Eurasia from Spain to Japan but in Europe it is restricted mainly to the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Hungary and Greece. 

The birds shot last Friday were returning to their breeding grounds in Europe.

The shooting of a single spoonbill is despicable. Shooting several is contemptible and shameful. It can easily make an impact on the number of breeding spoonbills in a colony and it could be years before the size of the colony recovers.

These massacres have been going on for a long time and it is about time that they are stopped. 

When I was a kid I was once shocked to see tens of hunters shooting at several flocks of herons trying to seek shelter in St Thomas Bay during a storm. At the time shooting herons was not illegal and the hunters were all bragging and showing off their trophies. 

I remember one hunter claiming to have shot twenty one birds but he collected only seven as the rest were too badly mutilated and could not be stuffed and mounted for his collection. Things should have changed but unfortunately they have not. 

This is not an issue of hunters being faced with new legislation and finding it ‘impossible’ to adapt. Spoonbills have been protected for thirty years. Many of today’s hunters were not even born when it became illegal to shoot at a spoonbill while most hunters below the age of fifty started hunting when the spoonbill was already protected.

Hunters have been shooting at protected birds for three decades and it is about time for this reprehensible activity to be stopped. The hunting federation has condemned the illegal shooting of the spoonbills but this is not enough. 

The hunting organisations have had more than enough time in which to control their members but have failed to do so. They are now trying to convince one and all that if they are allowed to hunt in spring they will behave and will not shoot at protected birds but actions speak louder than words.

The government should stop trying to appease hunters. It should not even consider allowing hunting in spring when birds are returning to their breeding grounds and it should bring Malta in line with the rest of Europe once and for all. (This article was published on 23.02.2011).