The Dutch Embassy is to sponsor BirdLife Malta’s scientific research work on bird migration over the Maltese islands, BirdLife said yesterday during a visit by Ambassador Jan Heidsma to the Ghadira nature reserve, which is managed by BirdLife.

The money made available by the Dutch Embassy will help the organisation to purchase and customise important software for local and overseas scientists to analyse past and future bird migration records. The financial assistance will also help BirdLife’s scientific bird-ringing group to modernise their systems to a level enjoyed by other ringing groups throughout the European Union.

During his tour at the reserve, Mr Heidsma said he was impressed by the beautiful landscape and the excellent maintenance that had been done there. It was important, as in all other European countries, that proper care be taken of nature and the environment.

BirdLife representatives also demonstrated a bird-ringing operation at one of the ringing stations at the nature reserve. To understand bird migration and the origin and destination of migrants, scientific bird-ringing is a vitally important technique for ornithologists, BirdLife said. Birds are caught at strategic points along their migration routes and are individually marked using numbered identification rings which are normally attached to their legs before the birds are released.