Bird Island

Bird Island is the Seychelles’ northernmost island in the archipelago, located 100 kilometres from Mahé. Once known as Ile Aux Vaches for its resident dugongs, the island is now named after its seasonal population of ‘sooty tern’ birds, which number in the millions between May and October. Indeed, when European sailors encountered the island at the end of the eighteenth century they observed ‘birds innumerable’, and thus the island’s name was born. More recent visitors have included David Attenborough who came to shoot scenes for the documentarly series ‘Life of Birds’. Bird Island is also home to 20 Aldabra giant tortoises, including the world’s heaviest, ‘Esmerelda’, who weighs 298 kilograms.

Bird Island is 30 minutes by light aircraft from Mahé.