Updated 3.50pm

An unusual vulture spotted in Malta on Tuesday continued its southward migration towards North Africa on Wednesday, bird conservationists said.

Leonardo the Egyptian Vulture, from the CERM Reintroduction Project in Italy, landed in Malta on Tuesday at about 4.30pm, but had flown off on Wednesday.

CERM director Guido Ceccolini alerted local ornithologist Natalino Fenech about the bird, which, after circling Malta's southern coast for a while, he turned south and began flying across the sea towards Libya.  

Conservationists had on Tuesday requested 24-hour police surveillance of the bird to deter poachers from targeting the rare species.  

Officers spent several hours monitoring the bird and on Wednesday morning were back out in the Maltese countryside to ensure the vulture was safe.  

Members of the St Hubert's Hunters group also kept a watchful eye on the bird, snapping photos of it as it came close. 

The rare bird was monitored flying to Malta from Italy using a satellite tracker.

Dr Fenech said that Leonardo's experience was similar to that of another vulture, Tobia, in 2015.

That too had left Malta safely and was now back in Italy where it would hopefully breed. 

Photo: Natalino Fenech

Dr Fenech said that on Tuesday he posted information about the vulture on a page that was followed by many people, including hunters, who regularly posted photos of birds they snapped, with a message that a satellite-tagged bird was on its way to Malta. He asked for the bird to be monitored and to ensure its safety.

"In no time, hunters started sending private messages about where they saw it and some even sent pictures taken by their mobile phones. The Wild Bird Regulation Unit was informed about the bird as updates transmitted frequently by the bird were relayed to me from Italy confirmed that the sightings from the ground were indeed Leonardo,” Dr Fenech said.

The bird first perched on the rocks in different areas in Żurrieq before it finally sat on an electricity pylon in a remote area in Qrendi where it spent the night. 

On Wednesday morning it took off and again settled in the areas opposite the Blue Grotto before settling again on an electrify pole where it was lucky not to be electrocuted because of the configuration of the cables. It then flew again and settled close to Għar Lapsi from where it flew towards Filfla.

Several hunters armed with cameras and a handful of bird watchers managed to photograph the bird.

“Several people are sceptical about involving hunters but I find it is much better informing them about birds as I find that trust brings with it responsibility. You change people by involving them, and that is where we are failing. I am sure that most of the birds being shot illegally these days are shot out of spite.

"This vulture could have been killed at any time, despite being satellite tracked. It was flying low over large tracts of private land where no one would have had a clue who did it,” Dr Fenech said.

He added: "if we want to change hunters, we have to give them an opportunity to change and involve them in meaningful conservation work. Several have already changed and many more are willing. Unless we see hunters as part of the solution, rather than as the problem, birds will continue to die needlessly,” Dr Fenech said.

Leonardo was hatched at the Italian Centre for threatened raptors on May 23 and was released at Matera three months later.

CERM an international vulture protection programme based in Italy which tracks the birds from West Africa through to central and even northern Europe. 

Nicholas Barbara, BirdLife Malta Conservation Manager, said “Egyptian Vultures are incredible birds, and very rare visitors to Malta. It is fantastic to see them here; however it is a sad reflection of the situation on our islands that when birds like this arrive they have to be guarded by the police. Rare birds are prized by some hunters."

Egyptian Vultures are large birds of prey, with a wingspan of over 150cm.

These rare birds are endangered in Europe, and the Italian conservation programme being run by the Centre for Endangered Raptors, aims to increase their numbers by breeding vultures in captivity and releasing them into the wild.

Leonardo was one of six birds released last year, all of whom are satellite tracked and their location checked every half hour. 

Leonardo's flight path is southbound.