We visit Bird Island and (you guessed it) see a million birds, who sometimes fly nonstop for years! We learned that giant tortoises are currently native ONLY in Seychelles and Galapagos. And why this island used to be called “Ile aux Vaches”, or Island of the Cows. Weird… Hmmmm…. Watch the episode below or read on:
After limping into remote Bird Island with some boat issues ( jib furler failing, alternator not working, watermaker still iffy ) we weren’t exactly brimming with confidence.
But here we were, floating off a speck of sand 3° south of the equator, surrounded by seabirds, curious kids, and a strange sense of magic.
Bird Island isn’t your average stopover. It’s wild in the best way. No cars, no roads—just a grassy airstrip and a few solar-powered lodges tucked between trees. But what it does have is birds. Lots of birds.
And one bird, in particular, makes this place truly iconic: the sooty tern.
The Ultimate Flyers
With up to 1.5 million sooty terns nesting here every year, the air hums with wings and sharp cries. These birds are legends—spending years aloft without landing, sleeping on the wing, sipping dinner from the sea surface. Yet once a year, they choose this very island to raise their young.
That’s no accident.
Back in the coconut plantation days of the 1800s, sooty tern numbers plummeted—trees replaced the native brush they needed to nest, and rats ate their eggs. But in the 1970s, a small conservation lodge was built and the island rewilded. Rats were removed. Native plants returned.
Within a decade, the colony grew from 60,000 to over a million.
The revival was so impressive it landed Bird Island a spot in David Attenborough’s Life of Birds—and rightly so. It’s one of the great seabird comebacks of our time.
Tortoise Encounters
But it wasn’t just the sky that caught our attention.
It was the slow, lumbering shapes meandering through the bushes.
Giant tortoises—dozens of them—roaming freely like prehistoric lawn ornaments.
Unlike Galápagos, where the tortoises are usually tucked far away in breeding centers, here in Seychelles they just… hang out. We found them under trees, on trails, even nuzzling our toes for a scratch behind the ears (which they seem to love).
It felt like sharing space, not just observing from afar.
Sea Cows and the Mystery Name
We kept wondering: why is this island labeled Ile aux Vaches—Island of the Cows—on official charts? We didn’t see a single cow.
Turns out, they weren’t talking about land cows.
This whole island is surrounded by underwater meadows of seagrass—the favorite food of the dugong, a shy, gentle marine mammal. Also known as the sea cow.
Centuries ago, these waters teemed with dugongs. French sailors named the island after them. But over time, the dugongs disappeared. Habitat loss, hunting, and the usual human footprints. Today, not a single dugong remains.
A sobering reminder: abundance doesn’t guarantee permanence.
Farewell to the Island of Birds
Bird Island was unforgettable. A place where the sky never sits still, where tortoises blink slowly under palms, and where names hold echoes of animals long gone.
In our last post, we were still fixing, organizing, prepping for life aboard. Bird Island felt like the first real breath. A chance to see why we do this—why we live this weird, off-grid, salt-crusted life.
And now? Nesi is holding together (barely), the crew is sunburned but happy, and Madagascar looms on the horizon.
Let’s see what shakes loose next.
đź’š
—The Green Coco Expedition Team
PS. Wondering what happened in Episodes 8 and 9? We hustled to prepare Nesi for our Shakedown Cruise, to figure out what works and what doesn’t… enroute to Bird Island.