Eight Seagulls Found Dead By Site Manager At Naxxar Natura2000 Site, Cause Of Death Unknown
A total of eight seagulls were found dead by the site manager at the Għadira s-Safra Natura2000 site.
The Natura2000 site, which is situated in the limits of Naxxar along the Coast Road, is managed by Marcus Camilleri, who encountered the dead birds over the last three days.
“These wintering gulls are dying at an alarming rate. They have no apparent wounds, fishing gear, or plastic mortality. Possibly the bird flu,” Camilleri told Lovin Malta.
“The gulls were scattered at Għadira s- Safra. I already gave three dead birds to Birdlife Malta, so the vet can verify if it’s bird flu or not,” he said, adding that BirdLife has also recently found dead gulls at the Salina Nature Reserve.
Found on land, the site manager explained how the seagulls were all black-headed gulls, except for one yellow-legged one.
The black-headed gulls are migrating birds that arrive in October and spend the winter in Malta, before migrating North again in March.
Photos by Marcus Camilleri
Camilleri expressed his hope that the authorities will inform the public of the necropsy results, as if they died of bird flu, we need to protect the little Fauna we have left.
The Environment and Resources Authority has been informed about the dead seagulls.
A Natura2000 site is an area that aims to preserve nature, part of a network of core breeding sites for rare and threatened species which are protected in their own right.
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