Bird Island, Coral island in Northern Seychelles

Bird Island is a 0.94 km² coral island, the northernmost in the Seychelles, about 100 km from Mahé. It is elongated, wider at one end and tapering to a rounded point, with dense green vegetation inland and a continuous band of pale sand. A straight, narrow, pale-grey airstrip runs along one side, bordered by trees.

Bird Island was discovered in 1756 and later served as a coconut plantation and for cash crops such as papaya and cotton. Between 1896 and 1906, 17,000 tons of guano were removed and exported to Mauritius as fertiliser. In 1808 the French ship Hirondelle sank off the northeast coast; half of the 180 people aboard died, while survivors reached the island and were rescued. Guy Savy bought the island in 1967 and handed its management to his sons Nicholas and Alex in January 2016.

The island's name comes from its sooty tern colony, which arrives from late March, lays eggs in May and stays until October. Its earlier French name, Île aux Vaches, referred to the dugongs once seen in nearby waters. Guy Savy, who bought the island in 1967, named the giant tortoise Esmeralda; since January 2016 his sons Nicholas and Alex have run the lodge.

Bird Island lies about 100 km north of Mahé and is reached by the island's own landing strip, Bird Island Airport, which links it to Mahé. A small weather station also operates on the island. The island is private, with seven chalet-villas, and is run for tourism and research.

Esmeralda, a free-roaming Aldabra giant tortoise weighing over 300 kg and estimated at least 170 years old, lives on Bird Island; the name was given by writer Lyall Watson. Because the island sits on the northern edge of the Seychelles Bank, it is the first landfall for migratory Eurasian birds, and the Seychelles Bird Records Committee has recorded several species new to the country here.