A dead turtle dove was left on the steps of Castille by Birdlife following a news conference the organisation held prior to an expected court decision on the hunting of turtle doves on Friday.

Addressing the media, members of the organisation said the current spring hunting season on the common quail, which has been open since Monday, has already resulted in a significant number of European turtle-doves being killed illegally. A decision on whether turtle-doves may be hunted legally in Malta is expected on Friday.

Birdlife had filed a warrant of prohibitory injunction last week which was provisionally upheld by the court.

Birdlife officials addressing the news conference. Photo: Antoine Monnier

It is arguing that the decision allowing turtle-doves to be hunted between April 17 and 30 is based on false data disregarding the periled conservation status of the species.

A court presided by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti shall be hearing the case on Friday.

The recommendation to open a hunting season on turtle-dove was taken at an Ornis Committee meeting on March 29 on the basis of a report tabled by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU).

This stated that Malta’s reference population on turtle-doves has increased between 10-12%, with the committee agreeing to a quota of 1,500 birds to be killed over a two-week period.

BirdLife Malta is contesting the science behind "such flawed calculations" especially given the fact that top experts and scientific institutions regard the European turtle-dove as continuously declining, with their populations being at the lowest since 2003.

Birdlife said that the most up-to-date data on declining turtle-dove populations was recently tabled during a meeting of the EU’s task force on the recovery of birds, for which officials from the Ministry for Gozo’s WBRU also attended.

During the meeting experts recommended a Europe-wide suspension on the hunting of turtle-doves to mitigate the continued loss of the species, and even singled out Malta, Birdlife said.

Addressing journalists in front of Castille on Thursday, Birdlife president Darryl Grima said Birdlife is seeking justice "on this travesty of a season which risks damaging a declining species".

Birdlife CEO Mark Sultana insisted that turtle dove do not belong to Malta but to the European countries where these birds nest and for which conservation efforts are in place to ensure they make a recovery.

He said that irrespective of the court proceedings, Birdlife teams have, over the past days, seen daily incidents of turtle-doves being killed illegally.

Other illegal hunting incidents have included the targeting of protected species like the pallid harrier, Montagu’s harriers and marsh-harriers, with some incidents of shooting after hours.

At the end of the press conference, the officials placed a dead turtle-dove which had been found by a member of the public earlier during the day at Delimara, on the steps of Castille.