Bird Island

Bird Island is a low coral cay at the northern edge of the archipelago, flat, sandy and about a kilometre and a half long, and between roughly May and September it holds a sooty tern colony numbering in the hundreds of thousands, birds packed across the open ground so densely that the noise is constant. Esmeralda, a giant tortoise reckoned to be among the heaviest recorded, lives on the island. It was once called Île aux Vaches for the dugongs in its waters, some 17,000 tonnes of guano were dug from it between 1896 and 1906, and it has been privately owned since 1967. One lodge operates there.

What's there

• The sooty tern colony - hundreds of thousands of birds breeding on the open ground.
• The flat coral island - a low sandy cay unlike the granite islands to the south.
• Esmeralda - the giant tortoise, among the heaviest individuals recorded.
• The beaches - sand running around the whole island's edge.

When to go

May to September is the tern breeding season, which is why most people come. Outside it the island is much quieter. Turtles nest between October and February.

Things to know

Outside the tern season the island is quiet and some find it dull. There is one lodge and no alternative; costs are high. Flights are small aircraft and weight-limited.

Nearby

Denis Island is east, and Mahé is far south.

Key facts