The hunters' federation has "unreservedly" condemned the shooting of protected birds after a hunter killed a protected flamingo. 

The FKNK said in a statement it will not hesitate to impose the harshest disciplinary measure allowed by its statute against the person who allegedly shot and killed a flamingo in the past days.

While it said it would act in accordance with the court outcome, the federation said such illegalities unjustly harm the rest of the hunters' community. 

On Monday, 31-year-old Carl Sant was charged with shooting down a flamingo at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq on Saturday. He was granted bail following arguments made by his lawyers Franco Debono and Alex Miruzzi.

The alleged poacher was tracked down by police based on videos taken from the site at Qalet Marku after people in the area reported that a man had shot a flamingo, a protected species, and subsequently retrieved the bird from the sea.