---
title: "Artificial lights down Scopoli’s Shearwater fledglings in Malta"
---

# Artificial lights down Scopoli’s Shearwater fledglings in Malta

[BirdLife Malta](http://www.birdlifemalta.org/) has reported 17 cases of young Scopoli’s Shearwaters *Calonectris diomedea* stranded inland due to the effects of light pollution in the past two weeks ([click here](https://maltaseabirdproject.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/high-number-of-scopolis-shearwaters-stranded-on-land-appeal-for-less-light-pollution/)).

 “Insensitive lighting from coastal development misleads these birds inland, often ending with these birds grounded and unable to make it back to the sea.  Light pollution is one of the main threats for Malta’s shearwaters, not only causing these strandings but also the abandonment of entire colonies in the past.”

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Corys/Scopolis Shearwater fledgling 2.jpg)

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Corys/Scopolis Shearwater fledgling.jpg)

 Rescued Scopoli's Shearwaters downed by light pollution in Malta last month, later successfully released

 Photographs by Ben Metzger and Joe Sultana

 Malta’s population of Scopoli’s Shearwaters has been estimated at around 4500 pairs, equivalent to an estimated 5% of the Mediterranean breeding population.  According to BirdLife Malta the main threats to the species in Malta are development close to the colonies, disturbance and persecution by humans, light and sound pollution and fisheries bycatch.

 A number of other shearwater species are affected deleteriously by artificial lighting when fledging.  These include Yelkouan *Puffinus yelkouan* in Malta ([click here](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/1834-malta-s-yelkouan-shearwaters-are-affected-by-light-pollution-when-fledging)), Newell’s *P. newelli* and Wedge-tailed *P. pacificus* in the Hawaiian Islands, Short-tailed *P. tenuirostris* in Australia, Townsend´s Shearwater *P. auricularis* on Mexico’s Socorro Island and Cory’s *C. borealis* in the Azores and Canary Islands.  Gadfly *Pterodroma* spp. and other burrowing procellariiform species are also affected at inhabited localities.

 **Selected Literature:**

 Gaston, K.J., Davies, T.W., Bennie, J. & Hopkins, J. 2012.  Review: reducing the ecological consequences of night-time light pollution: options and developments.  [*Journal of Animal Ecology* 49: 1256-1266](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02212.x/abstract).

 Raine, H., Borg, J.J., Raine, A., Bairner, S. & Borg Cardona, M. 2007.  [*Light pollution and its effect on Yelkouan Shearwaters in Malta; causes and solutions*](http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showFile&rep=file&fil=light-pollution.pdf).  BirdLife Malta  54 pp.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 November 2014*