The Melita Foundation is proud to be supporting the Scopoli’s Shearwater Birds Project, which will encourage birds to return to cliffsides breeding grounds.

The project is a conservation action initiative of a dumping site which has recently been cleaned and regenerated by Wasteserv Malta. Pollution over the cliff edge and into the sea disturbed the breeding grounds for the Scopoli’s Shearwater Birds (Ċiefa in Maltese). The project will provide artificial nests that resemble their cliff edge burrows to attract this species to return to the breeding grounds. Shearwaters spend their life mainly at sea but return to their breeding ground every year to lay a single egg. The hatched chick lives in the burrow for a few months until its first flight. As part of the project, trail cameras and electronic callers will be deployed to monitor and attract birds to the artificial nest for the first few years. In phase two, BirdLife plan to live stream the burrows to increase awareness of Malta’s natural habitats.