Cagarros: the bird you hear at night

Almost every guest asks us about it sooner or later. Usually on the second evening, half amused and half unnerved: what is that calling at night? It sounds like a crying child, it comes from the coast, and there are a lot of them.

Those are the cagarros — Cory’s shearwaters. They belong to the Azores as much as the hydrangeas do, except that you never set eyes on them during the day.

Why you only hear them at night

Cagarros are open-ocean birds. They spend the day far out over the Atlantic and only come ashore under cover of darkness, to breed in rock crevices and burrows along the cliffs. On land they’re clumsy and easy prey — hence the night shift. And because pairs have to find each other in the dark, they call. Loudly.

From around March into the autumn you’ll hear it every night. We’ve grown very fond of it; you wonder about it for two nights and after that it’s simply the sound of summer.

And then October comes

In October and November the young birds leave their burrows for the first time and head out to sea. They navigate by the faint light over the water — and that’s exactly what undoes them: street lamps, house lights and headlights are brighter. The fledglings are dazzled, come down on roads and squares, and can’t get airborne again on their own.

That’s why the SOS Cagarro campaign runs across the Azores every year. If you’re here in autumn you can help:

Only as much outdoor light in the evening as you need. We switch the garden lights off early during those weeks.
Drive slowly at night, especially on the coast roads. The birds like to sit in the middle of the tarmac.
If you find one: don’t chase it off and don’t throw it into the water. Pick it up with a cloth, put it in a cardboard box with air holes, keep it cool and dark — and let us know. The municipality runs official collection points, from which the birds are released again.

And nobody needs to be nervous about handling them: they don’t bite, they’re just exhausted.

One last suggestion

On a clear evening, take a glass of wine out into the garden and turn the lights off. First the stars come out, then the calling starts down at the coast. You only get that out here.

Here you can see when the house is free.

Frank, Bärbel, Maren & Simon