Bird Island Nature Reserve, Nature reserve in Lambert's Bay, South Africa

Bird Island Nature Reserve is a protected coastal area in the Western Cape where thousands of seabirds make their home. The island hosts African penguins, cormorants, gannets, and other marine species that live and breed there year-round.

Guano was mined on the island as fertiliser from 1888 until 1990. In 1988 it was officially proclaimed the Lambert's Bay Penguin Island Provincial Nature Reserve, and it is now managed by CapeNature. A breakwater linking the island to the mainland was built in 1959, which let house cats reach the breeding birds and do serious damage.

The reserve serves as a working research station where scientists monitor seabird populations and their health. Visitors can observe how conservation efforts protect these animals and keep their colonies thriving.

The island lies about 100 metres offshore and is joined to the mainland at Lambert's Bay by a breakwater built in 1959, so visitors walk across rather than take a boat. The birds tolerate people at a few metres, but the colony is loud and covered in fresh guano. A visitor centre houses a guano museum, coffee shop, aquarium and small penguin pool.

In December 2005, Cape fur seals entered the colony and killed or crushed more than 200 gannets, after which the entire colony abandoned the site. A local artist made 200 plastic gannet decoys and placed them in the old nests; within hours the birds returned and began throwing the decoys out, and by 2007 over 10,000 gannets were on the island again.