The sad fate of birds

Birdwatching is an interesting and a beautiful hobby. Seeing these magnificent creatures through our bins and telescopes often rewards us with joy. However, sadly, that is not always the case.

One such incident was the sighting by Maltese birdwatchers of a poor Yellow-legged Gull, an adult, with a mass of fishing line in its beak. The fishing tackle was in its beak, like a ball, and the bird couldn’t close its beak. It was impossible to catch this bird for treatment because it flew well, so birdwatchers could only witness this without the possibility of doing something. Feeling helpless to do something to help this bird is surely a miserable feeling. Without the possibility to eat the Yellow-legged Gull will surely die a slow and painful death. This happened in early July 2023, at Salina Nature Reserve, Malta. The bird was sighted only on one day. The next day another Yellow-legged Gull at the same place, this time a juvenile bird, had fishing line tied to its beak.

Fishing line and birds don’t go together, and this is not an isolated case. Several cases have been observed, of birds with fishing line. Once two Black-headed Gulls were somehow connected together with fishing line, also at Salina reserve. They were struggling to fly, and one was dragging the other behind, almost drowning. It happened that a birdwatcher, a friend of mine, texted the local birdwatchers group about this. I immediately texted two persons that work in the reserve. This was December 24th 2021, a day before Christmas. They went to the reserve, managed to catch these Black-headed Gulls and freed them. I was happy that I helped these birds, and a big thanks goes to the people that actually went at their place of work on their free day and freed the gulls. Just a text helped to save the lives of two birds.

Fishing lines are one of the many threats that birds face. If you go fishing please make sure not to discard or leave behind any fishing lines, with or without hooks.