Jimmy Muscat, a 44-year-old hunter from Manikata was granted bail on Wednesday after pleading not guilty to shooting a protected bird in Miżieb on Tuesday.  

Police inspector Elliot Magro told Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras that Muscat was caught red-handed just minutes after shooting the Honey Buzzard.

When members of the police’s Environment Protection Unit arrived on the scene on Tuesday afternoon, they found Muscat entering his car. They saw him place something in his jacket pocket and it resulted that these were feathers. The freshly-killed bird was found hidden under the car's front seat.

The bird, one of a pair seen roosting in the Mellieħa area of Miżieb, was witnessed being shot by a civilian who reported the matter to the authorities.  

The court acceded to a request for bail but ordered Muscat to stay away from his matrimonial home where the police found a number of stuffed protected birds.

Magro said the police still had to verify whether these were covered by a permit. 

Muscat was also ordered to stay away from his father's house, also in Manikata, where the police found several weapons, including one that had been modified to take a silencer. 

He was ordered to pay a €2,000 deposit and bound by a €5,000 personal guarantee. 

The spring hunting season is currently open, although licensed hunters are only permitted to catch quail and are required to report any catches. 

In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, FKNK said that it has suspended the alleged poacher with immediate effect. His hunting licence will be revoked should he be found guilty in court, it added.

On Wednesday the hunters' association Kaċċaturi San Ubertu condemned the shooting of the protected bird and said such acts harm hunters who in their absolute majority are all law-abiding. 

The European Honey Buzzard is listed as a protected species in the EU Birds Directive, meaning the species is subject to special conservation measures and cannot be hunted anywhere in Europe.

Despite this, the birds are often targeted by poachers as they migrate some 6,000 kilometres from their breeding grounds in northern Africa to Europe in the spring. 

Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace was defence counsel.