People say that travel should be to go to different places and see different scenery. Our family, on the other hand, has always been obsessed with a small island in the western Indian Ocean and wanted to return there. So after eighteen months, we set foot on this dreamy island again, the Seychelles Bird Island. Located at the northernmost tip of the Seychelles archipelago, Bird Island is arguably unique, and the entire island is an eco-hotel. It is famous for its birds, not only because it is home to more than twenty species of birds, but more importantly, the birds are the true owners of the island.
Author: Xue Lu
Photo: Zhao Chen
Overlooking the breeding grounds of the black terns
We landed on the island in a 17-seater propeller plane, and life on the island was still familiar and simple. Roby Bresson, the old guide of Bird Island, personally greets every guest who lands on the island and introduces the overview of Bird Island. Roby's other identity is that of a local conservationist. He is seychelles' premier ornithologist, and for twelve years Roby has meticulously guarded the elves of Bird Island while patiently doing science to tourists.
Roby Bresson
Bird Island is a coral reef island with an area of 101 hectares, surrounded by about 5 kilometers of pure white coral sand beaches. Twenty-four wooden houses have been built on the island to control the number of people landing on the island and avoid the impact of too many tourists on the ecological environment. The villa door has no lock, the room only has simple lighting and charging power, drinking water whether hot or cold to go to the restaurant to get. The shower uses a solar water heater and purified seawater. There is no mobile phone signal on the island, and wifi is only available in 2015. There are no entertainment facilities here, so people can fully appreciate the beauty of nature.
Image source: Torishima official website
Compared with the sumptuous dining of other four-star and five-star hotels in the Seychelles, the three meals on Bird Island are minimalist, and the breakfast content is basically fixed, including fruit, omelette, bread slices, yogurt, coffee and so on. Lunch and dinner can not be ordered, there is a buffet of 6-8 Cleo style dishes, and the dishes are properly matched with meat and vegetables, which is very tasty. One of the more interesting things is that on both occasions to Torishima, there is a curry-flavored poultry egg for dinner, which is smaller than the eggs we eat in China, the egg green is more transparent, and the yolk is larger. Ask the chef, are we eating bird eggs? Chef A: Yes. But I thought about it, and I thought that the famous Bird Island could not give tourists seabird eggs! Is it that we are not communicating clearly? After returning to China, I checked the information and learned that some islands in the Seychelles, including Bird Island, have the conditions to pick up bird eggs, which means that for those birds that are not endangered, they can control the number of their populations by picking up bird eggs in an appropriate amount. So, in the end, we didn't understand whether we were eating seabird eggs or eggs.
Among the more than 20 species of wild birds on Bird Island, the least fearful of them is the small spotted dove, which sometimes ventures into the villa and looks around. When people are eating, they simply fly into the restaurant to forage for food. Daughters would sometimes quietly feed them crumbs, but if found by the beautiful waiter, they would gently stop her. In fact, in many restaurants in the Seychelles, the dove is a regular customer.
Flew into the villa and treated my head flower like a real flower
The restaurant's spotted dove
Falkland fret male
Along with the Spotted Dove, there was also the Falkland finches. The head, neck and chest of the Falkland finches are a beautiful magenta that is very eye-catching. The female bird is far less beautiful than the male bird, and even has a bit of a gray head and dirty face. It kept taking away the biscuits that its daughter fed it and flew back, presumably feeding them to the birds. After 4 or 5 round trips, the female bird calmed down and ate some cookie residue herself.
A white-capped tern incubating an egg
In front of and behind the house, there are white-crowned terns who are not afraid of people and its relatives, the little Xuan terns. The two species of terns are very similar in appearance, and they are distinguished by the fact that small terns generally nest with leaves on trees, while white-crowned terns nest with branches under trees. Morphologically, the small tern is slightly smaller – this is what I learned after I returned to China. When we were at Bird Island, we always recognized them as white-capped terns. I was still wondering why the nesting habits of the same kind of bird were so different, it turned out to be a oolong, a little trouble. Don't look at these two kinds of terns with their own black eyeliner is cool, but their calls are hoarse and ugly, and they can be heard from morning to night, even in the middle of the night. In August, many of the young birds of the white-capped tern have hatched and are standing under the trees with their parents. When someone approaches, the parent bird moves its body, seemingly inadvertently, but in fact, it uses its own body to block the front of the incoming person and protect the young bird.
When I met a pair of white-crowned terns showing affection, the two sides frequently nodded their heads in goodwill, which is probably the origin of the word "Noddy" in the English name of the white-crowned tern.
Little terns in the trees
Three-toed sandpiper
We went for a walk on the beach on the west coast of the island and found a three-toed sandpiper running along the seashore. This lively wader likes to forage for food on the beach at low tide. As soon as the waves recede, they look for small crustaceans on the beach. The daughter quietly followed the little bird and ran out far. After a while, the child ran back with tears in his eyes and said, "The three-toed sandpiper is too close to the sea and has been swept away by the big waves... Dear child, the real nature is not as "warbling and swallowing" as it seems, but it is actually full of competition, elimination and death.
The northwestern part of Bird Island is a breeding ground for black terns. In order not to affect the life of the black terns, the workers on the island circled their habitat with wire and erected a number of "No Entry" signs. August is the breeding season, and millions of black terns gather on the beach in front of the bushes to nurse their young birds, which is a spectacular scene. Echoing the dense black and white figures are the incessant high-pitched birdsong, even masking the sound of the waves. For the sake of photography, my daughter and I both wore red pants that day, and without trying to get a little closer to the birds, countless black terns startled and circled in the air, leaving only the chicks, pitifully standing still. Helplessly, my daughter and I had to retreat. The gentleman was wearing a gray sunscreen suit, and even if he was close, he did not disturb the black tern. I had heard before that bird watching should not wear brightly colored clothes, but this time I finally had a deep understanding. When the black terns flew up in flocks, the daughter grunted, looking up at the bird, don't open your mouth, don't let the bird droppings fall out of your mouth... As a result, bird droppings landed on her beloved sun hat.
The densely packed black tern breeds to cure dense phobias
Black Tern
Black Tern Chicks
At the northern end of the island is a large area of deserted white sand beach. When you hike through, you feel like you're in the desert.
Another pleasure at Bird Island is snorkeling. Roby has thoughtfully written down the time of the day's tides on a small chalkboard where visitors can arrange water activities. We chose to go snorkeling on the east coast after breakfast. Bird Island's underwater scenery is no less than that of the other islands of the Seychelles. A variety of tropical fish, such as forked-spotted scaled rays, dark spinytails, butterflyfish, swallowfish, brocade fish, and many other beautiful little fish that I can't name, swim among corals and seagrasses. In the middle of a pile of stones on the seabed, we found a brick, a wavy shell that opened slightly, revealing a faint deep blue. This near-extinction in the South China Sea is still relatively common in Seychelles. We even met a turtle. The turtle seemed to be swimming slowly and gently, but I was trying my best to chase it. Yet in the middle of the sea I was so small and powerless that in the end, I was thrown away by the turtles.
White-tailed stork and nesting juveniles
Exhausted, I returned to shore, collapsed on the beach, and saw white-tailed storks foraging between the woods and the sea. The white-tailed stork has two long central tail feathers, making it fly like an elegant fairy dance. The white-tailed storks also nest at the base of the tree, and Roby will use stones to help them build their nests more completely to prevent crabs from causing trouble.
White Gull
After lying on the beach for a while, I noticed two white gulls in the bushes behind me. The two white gulls seemed to be disturbed, and one of them flew up against the sea breeze and almost hovered there, facing us, as if to drive us out of its territory. Against the backdrop of the blue sky, the elf-like white gulls were so dazzlingly white.
Frigate Bird
After snorkeling, it was nearly noon, and a dozen frigate birds appeared higher in the sky like black kites. More often, hundreds of frigate birds would fly out in the late afternoon, circling high in the air, waiting for an opportunity to feed. It is said that frigate birds often rob red-footed of food, but we did not see red-footed on this trip.
There are also some common birds on Bird Island, such as red bone tops, family bugs and so on. Its degree of commonness is no less than the feeling of seeing magpies and sparrows in the country.
Red bone top
Falkland Spotted Dove
common mynah
Seychelles honey-sucking birds
ruddy turnstone
Bird Island is full of crabs. Not only are there crabs by the sea and in the woods, but there are also many crab caves around the wooden houses. At night, these little guys come out to feed. No one eats crabs here, and it is clearly stipulated that crabs are not allowed. Therefore, these crabs live freely like seabirds. Not only can they catch small fish, but they also sometimes eat bird eggs .
Heart palm sand crab
Horned-eyed sand crab
hermit crab
Aldabra tortoise
Bird Island is home to more than two dozen of the world's largest tortoises, the Aldabra tortoise. These tortoises take leisurely walks around the island every day, eating grass, leaves and fruit falling from trees, and their tortoise shells are covered with bird droppings. Tired, they rest under the trees or even outside the window of the villa. One of the male tortoises, Esmeralda Esmeralda, is over 90 years old and is currently the oldest tortoise in the world. Tortoises have a gentle personality, never attack humans, and the only thing to be careful about playing with them is not to be stepped on by the tortoises – the tortoise's nearly 300 kilograms weigh down on human feet, with unimaginable consequences.
Turtles are another place on Bird Island besides birds – the only place in the world where turtles can be seen ashore during the day to lay their eggs. Bird Island launched a conservation project for critically endangered hawksbill turtles and green sea turtles in 1995, and the results of the project were remarkable. To avoid turtle eggs being eaten by seabirds or injured by tourists, Roby collects them, buries them in shallow pits under the bushes, and marks them as they break out of their shells. When we came to Bird Island in 2015, we happened to encounter a group of small hawksbill turtles hatching out of their shells, staggering toward the sea. Watching new beings rush into the future and embark on their wonderful journeys fill our hearts with joy.
A small tortoiseshell crawling towards the sea
In order not to disturb the green sea turtles and birds, Bird Island has almost no lights at night, making it ideal for watching the stars. The starry sky at three degrees south latitude is like a piece of black satin decorated with diamonds of all sizes. Growing up in the city, I had never seen such a beautiful starry sky. My husband and I moved the recliner to the grass, looked at the stars with the bird watching telescope, and thought for a while, and then think about how long the starlight we saw at this time had walked before our eyes. At this moment, the old mother and Jiao'er were sleeping soundly in the house, my husband and I were lazily chatting under the stars, and the cries of the birds around me and the sound of the waves in the distance were intertwined to form a unique voiceover - my ideal life was like this, and I hoped that such a quiet and calm feeling could continue until the end of the earth.
The history of The Bird Island Eco Hotel is very tortuous. Before humans set foot, Bird Island was once a happy home for seabirds and dugongs. However, since the beginning of the last century, the overexploitation and utilization of Bird Island has seriously damaged the ecology here. By 1955 the number of black terns had plummeted from more than 1 million pairs to less than 65,000 pairs. It was not until 1967 that Mr. and Mrs. Savy from the United Kingdom bought Bird Island and designed Bird Island as an eco-hotel. After more than ten years of recuperation under the guidance of science, Bird Island has gradually recovered its vitality. In 1997, British BBC eco-documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough led a BBC production team to record two documentaries on Bird Island. With the documentary airing, Torishima's reputation soared. As a private island, Bird Island has received several awards including the Green Planet Award, the Green Program Award for Environmental Management and Good Practice, and the Most Responsible Featured Tourist Hotel ( the only hotel in the Seychelles to receive the award). In 2006, Torishima was named the seventh best eco-travel destination in the world by BBC Wildlife Magazine.
Bird Island is a precious gift for nature lovers. Twice visiting Bird Island, we fell in love with this pure island. The feeling of living here is not the sense of accomplishment of some donkey friends to show off their conquest of nature. Rather, it feels like this sea, this island, this hundreds of thousands of elves have accepted us and made us one of them. As Sir David Attenborough said, "It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of passion, the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest." She is the source of all rich and magnificent life, and because of this, she makes our life worth experiencing and not worth it. ”
鸟岛，never say goodbye ！
PS, when preparing to write this article, it is just in time for the domestic media to report that the migratory birds in the south flight are hunted in large numbers, and countless migratory birds either die in bird nets or die in the belly of the people. Compared to these tragically dead migratory birds, the birds of Bird Island are so happy!
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