Bird callers and shelters for terns installed on Azorean islets

May 6, 2022

At the beginning of the terns’ reproduction season, the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change, through the LIFE IP AZORES NATURA project, is installing 17 bird callers and 60 shelters on several islets of the Archipelago, namely on the Ilhéu da Praia and Ilhéu de Baixo on Graciosa, the Ilhéu da Vila on Santa Maria and the Ilhéu do Topo on São Jorge.

This installation is part of the conservation action C6.1 – Restoring islet seabirds’ habitat – and of the communication and dissemination action E3 – Networking with other LIFE and/or non-LIFE Projects – and had the support of the partners: SPEA – Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, which assembled a sound system to reproduce the singing of the seabirds on areas where are the bird callers, thus increasing the occupation rate of the bird shelters; and LIFE ROSATE TERN project from the United Kingdom, with whom contact was established for an exchange of knowledge on the methods utilized for the bird callers’ manufacturing.

The Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change committed itself to the implementation of these shelters, as they play a fundamental role in protecting the broods from the weather and predation by the Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis atlantis) and the Azores Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris granti).

Find out more about this project’s actions on www.lifeazoresnatura.eu/en.