A million sooty terns and the world's heaviest tortoise — the Seychelles' northernmost coral island reached by 30-minute light aircraft
Bird Island (Île aux Vaches) sits at the northern tip of the Seychelles, 100km north of Mahé — the only low-lying coral island visible from the capital's granite peaks, accessible by a 30-minute light aircraft flight. The island hosts one of the most extraordinary spectacles in the Indian Ocean: a colony of over one million sooty terns that nests here between May and October, filling the sky above the island with noise and movement in what birders describe as one of the world's great avian events. The resident giant tortoise population includes Esmeralda, recorded as the world's heaviest livi…
Bird Island has been documented by sailors since at least the 17th century, when it appeared on Portuguese and Dutch charts as a watering point — the sooty tern colony would have been visible from the sea. The island was used for guano extraction in the 19th century, and the coconut palms planted then still define much of the island's interior. The creation of Bird Island Lodge in the 1960s as one of the Seychelles' first eco-tourism operations pre-dated the country's tourism industry by decades. The tortoise Esmeralda was brought to Bird Island as an adult by a former owner, meaning she coul…