The Blue Rock-thrush, known locally as Merill, is Malta’s iconic national bird, frequently seen gracing the rugged cliffs and valley walls of the Maltese Islands. Standing approximately 20cm tall, these striking birds are easily identified: males boast a vibrant blue body with dark wings, while females present a subtle mottled grey-brown. You’ll probably first notice them by their melodious song, which they often perform from prominent vantage points.

By taking a photography trail around Comino, you could contribute to exciting citizen-science on the Blue Rock-thrush! Merilli Malta is a long-term research project, led by ornithologists Benjamin Metzger and Marie Claire Gatt, which uses colour-ringing to obtain data on the whereabouts of individual birds. Colour-ringing is a research technique where wild birds are fitted with a ring carrying a unique, short alpha-numeric code that can be read from a distance with the use of a telescope or camera. Handling and ringing wild birds is limited to licenced bird-ringers, but anyone can look for and identify colour-ringed birds. This allows a greater number of observers to gather information about individual birds in the wild.

Since the Blue Rock-thrush is such an emblematic bird, it is an ideal candidate for a citizen-science colour-ringing study to answer questions about their movement and breeding ecology. Merilli Malta’s aims are:

By using different coloured rings according to the island the bird was ringed on, it is easy to recognise whether a bird ringed on one island is seen on another. Blue Rock-thrushes ringed on Comino bear a dark blue colour-ring with white text starting with the letter K. Those ringed on Malta bear a white colour-ring with black text starting with the letter M or A, while those ringed on Gozo bear a yellow ring with black text, starting with the letter G or H. Lying within the Gozo Channel, Comino may be a very exciting place to encounter the first evidence of inter-island movements!

Friends of the Earth Malta are a collaborator of the Merilli Malta Project, communicating the importance of urban biodiversity to support urban-breeding birds, and showcasing the exceptional richness of the island nature reserve of Comino. What’s more, Il-Forn ta’ Kemmuna houses the first successful nestbox for Blue Rock-thrushes, which fledged three chicks in its first season. Spotting these colour-ringed birds around Comino or beyond would help uncover where young birds establish their territories after they become independent.

Report your sightings of colour-ringed birds to contribute to local research! To learn more or submit a sighting, visit www.merillimalta.org, or follow Merilli Malta on Facebook and Instagram.