Eight illegal bird trapping installations for the capture of protected birds have been reported to the police, the CABS volunteer group said on Wednesday.

The sites were photographed during a survey flight conducted last week, the organisation said.

The group issued pictures of artificial ponds surrounded by large clap-nets and equipped with plastic decoy birds used to lure and trap protected curlews, sandpipers and other wading birds.

The sites were spotted in the fields between Rabat and Dingli, the Misraħ Strejnu area, St. Thomas Bay and near the Xrobb l-Għaġin nature park in Delimara, where a flamingo was recently found dead.

The installations were well hidden behind a labyrinth of rubble walls and trees and therefore could not be readily seen from ground level.

Four of the  eight sites had also been reported to the police in July 2019, August 2018 and August 2017.

Another site found during the survey flight.

“The fact that in all these years, despite numerous reports and overwhelming evidence provided by CABS, the police have not been able to stop the poachers operating these notorious sites, is a damning indictment of the state of law enforcement on Malta. The lack of appropriate enforcement action is so evident that it is hard to believe that it is solely caused by the lack of resources or ability”, CABS Press Officer Axel Hirschfeld said.

"We suggest that the landowners should face vicarious liability and be forced to deconstruct the sites so they can never be used for illegal trapping again. This would not only save the lives of many birds but also put an end to rumours that certain poachers enjoy special political protection from the very top", Hirschfeld added.

CABS also criticised the government's plans to re-introduce finch trapping under the guise of a 'scientific study'.

"It’s clear the only reason the government is considering such a project is simply as an excuse to open the season and appease the trappers. Bird trappers are not scientists by any stretch of the imagination”, CABS Wildlife Crime Officer Fiona Burrows said, adding that she expects the European Commission to charge Malta for breaching EU-law, if such a season will be opened.

CABS members and Malta-based staff will continue to monitor bird migration and report hunting and trapping offences on Malta until November.