Bird Watching in Madeira Island

With two thirds of its territory occupied by the lush and abundant laurisilva forest, the Madeira Island proves to be an oasis for bird watchers, who travel from various parts of the world to visit the islands and admire its fauna.

The variety of land and sea birds is quite attractive. The species that nest on the islands are 42 and some of them are endemic of Macaronesia and only exist in Madeira.

In Madeira habitat can be seen many land birds such as the trocaz pigeon (Columba trocaz), the Berthelot’s pipit (Anthus berthelotii), the common buzzard(Buteo buteo harterti), the canarian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus canariensis) and many seabirds like the fea’s petrel (Pterodroma feae), Zino's petrel (Pterodroma madeira), a Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis), the manx shearwater (Puffinus Puffinus), the little shearwater (Puffinus assimilis), a great shearwater (Puffinus gravis ), Madeiran storm petrel (Oceanodroma castro), the yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis atlantis), lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) and the ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis).

Some most dedicated observers do not dispense a trip to the Desert Islands. This small territory receives extremely important colonies of seabirds. Among them, 150 pairs of fea’s petrel , the largest colony of Atlantic Bulwer's petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) and species such as Madeiran storm petrel (castro Oceanodroma), Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) and the Barolo’s Shearwater (Puffinus baroli).