A protected bird that hatched in Finland last summer, was killed in Malta after a three-week journey through 10 European countries, BirdLife claimed on Friday.

The European Honey-buzzard was being tracked as part of a post-doctoral research project into the migratory behaviour of the species.

It was shot down last Saturday near Rabat, Malta, BirdLife said in a statement.

"An investigation by the police’s Environmental Protection Unit (EPU), assisted by officials from BirdLife Malta in collaboration with scientific researchers based in Germany and Finland, managed to track the exact location of the dead bird, retrieving the carcass of this migrant," the NGO said.

GPS-tagged Honey-buzzard soaring over Rabat. Photo: BirdLife Malta

The juvenile Honey-buzzard, a protected species, was part of a project led by researcher Elham Nourani from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour in Germany. 

A total of 25 birds from Finland were fitted with GPS trackers by researchers Patrik Byholm and Wolfgang Fiedler, with help from Teemu Honkanen and other local bird ringers, with another six birds tagged by the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Switzerland.

The bird who made it to Malta was ringed and tagged in Turku,  southwest Finland, in its nest in typical forest habitat.

Towards mid-September, the bird of prey started its journey south, first crossing the Baltic Sea to Latvia and further migrating through Lithuania, Kaliningrad, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It then crossed the Adriatic Sea reaching the Italian peninsula and continued towards the southern part of Sicily where it stopped for a few days’ rest at the forest reserve of Santo Pietro.

The same Finnish Honey-buzzard at its nest with GPS tag. Photo: Teemu Honkanen

On October 8 it left Sicily at around 11.30am crossing the Central Mediterranean and reaching Gozo around 3.30pm, following which it headed south towards Buskett.

Birdwatchers based at Buskett sighted the bird at around 5pm.

Accurate information from its GPS tracker which was shared with BirdLife Malta after contact was made with the researchers, soon led to doubts about the bird’s welfare which stopped moving over the area of Ġnien il-Kbir outside Rabat, a few hundred metres from the Buskett Bird Sanctuary.

Further information about the bird’s location was then shared with EPU officers, which led to its finding in a private garden where the bird landed after it was shot down.

A post-mortem examination by veterinarians confirmed the presence of large lead pellets in the bird’s body as the cause of death.

'Remarkable how protected species is hunted in a European State'

Project leader Nourani said they did not really know much about Malta until now.

"It’s remarkable how a protected species such as the Honey-buzzard is still hunted illegally in a European State. All the birds we have tracked have had no issues reaching the African continent except this one in Malta, and another bird which stopped transmitting over Cyprus,” they added.

The killed Honey-buzzard is one of two tracked birds that migrated over Malta this autumn.

Another bird which was tagged from the same area passed safely over the country on the morning of September 16.

Having reached the island early in the day, the bird spent less than an hour soaring over Malta and continued on, reaching Libya the next morning. The bird is presently located in Niger.

Two similar cases

In its statement on Friday, BirdLife noted it knew of two similar cases over the past weeks.

It said a satellite tag belonging to an Egyptian Vulture from Italy was mysteriously washed ashore earlier this month with no trace of the bird whatsoever, while a satellite-tracked Osprey mysteriously disappeared after it left the south of Sicily earlier in September.

Both birds originated from Italian conservation and research projects with whom BirdLife Malta was in touch.

GPS track of the 3-week migratory journey between Finland & Malta of the Honey-buzzard: Google Earth

'Shameful and embarrassing'

According to the eNGO's CEO Mark Sultana, Malta’s current situation with illegal hunting and the legislation purposely enacted to allow taxidermy exchanges was directly impacting a significant portion of birds coming from Europe.

"While most countries are trying to learn more about birds in order to help them, our country allows the illegal killing to go on.

"This is shameful and embarrassing, and our leaders need to tackle this problem immediately. BirdLife Malta will cooperate fully. This is not the first case where birds subject to conservation and research projects literally end up dead or disappear over Malta. The question is what we are doing as a country to stop this from happening again."