Il-Merill is the ornithological journal of BirdLife Malta. It serves as a medium for the publication of articles and short notes dealing with ornithology and bird conservation in the Maltese Islands and the Mediterranean. It also carries systematic lists of birds recorded in the Maltese Islands and rarities reports written by the Maltese Rarities and Records Committee, as well as bird ringing reports prepared by the BirdLife Malta Ringing Scheme.
The 2024 issue (No. 35) was published in November 2024 and is available from our offices or below where you can find all issues available for download in PDF format.
The journal’s current editorial board is made up by Martin Austad, Edward Bonavia, Victor Falzon, Nicholas Galea, Marie Claire Gatt and Benjamin Metzger. The board welcomes contributions of original papers and short notes to the upcoming issue and these should be sent in word format by 31 July 2025 to [email protected] and [email protected] with the subject line ‘il-Merill 36 submission’. Submissions should not have been published or submitted elsewhere. All contributions will be reviewed by the editorial board and may be sent for peer-review to experts in the field outside of the editorial board. The editorial board reserves the right to reject contributions.
All contributions should include an abstract (150–250 words) in English and in Maltese. If none of the authors are Maltese, the editorial board will translate the abstract from English. The main body of text should be written in English. Research papers should normally not exceed 4000 words of main text, 50 references and eight figures/tables, while short notes should not exceed 1500 words, 10 references and two figures/tables. References should follow the Harvard reference style.
