Mauritius - Birds

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Like many reputable holiday companies we are ABTA registered, our ABTA membership number is 65310.

We also use ATOL protected tour operators. However if you wish to use a tour operator who is not ATOL protected then we will take our supplier failure insurance on your behalf.

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Birds As Réunion retains more natural forest than most other Indian Ocean islands, its endemic birds have fared better than those elsewhere in the region. Today, nine species are still fairly plentiful. A short walk in places such as Roche Ecrite or the fabulous Bébour Forest should reveal the likes of Réunion cuckoo-shrike, Réunion bulbul, Réunion stonechat, Réunion grey white-eye and Réunion olive white-eye. Only the cuckoo-shrike is somewhat uncommon and furtive.

Easier to see in Réunion than on Mauritius is the elegant little Mascarene paradise flycatcher. The land bird best known to locals is the Réunion harrier, a handsome black-and-white raptor often seen soaring over lush vegetation in search of prey. It is also found on Madagascar but is less common there. Locally, it is known as the papangue. Also shared with Mauritius is the Mascarene swiftlet, flocks of which can be seen wheeling energetically around their nesting caves.

Two small, threatened seabirds are high on the lists of visiting birders: the Réunion black petrel (Pterodroma atterima) and the Barau’s petrel (Pterodroma baraui). Both are virtually confined to Réunion and breed in the inhospitable heights of Piton-des-Neiges, which they leave just before dusk for nocturnal foraging jaunts far out at sea.

Sometimes, however, fledgling petrels which are not familiar with artificial lights in coastal buildings fly into the buildings. Many are killed in this way and a campaign is under way to foster an awareness of the petrels’ plight. People are requested, if they find injured petrels, to bring them to local experts who then treat and release the birds back into the wild. Owing to their rarity, the precise nesting locations of these petrels are kept secret, known only to a few dedicated ornithologists.

A third highly localised, small seabird is the Mascarene shearwater (Puffinus atrodorsalis), thought to inhabit only the Mascarenes and Comoros.

The national bird is the white-tailed tropic-bird, or paille en queue, often seen flying gracefully in the vicinity of its sheer nesting cliffs.

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Mauritius - Birds

Reunion

Mauritius - Birds