Azores island of Corvo turns off lights for young shearwaters

Every year, for the last five nights of October, street lighting on the tiny Azores island of Corvo is switched off from 9pm to 4am. This is how its roughly 400 residents help Cory’s shearwater chicks that fly out to sea for the first time at night.

City lights dazzle the young birds: they become disoriented and crash to the ground, not only in the Azores but also in Madeira and the Canary Islands. The Azores host 65–75% of the world’s breeding Cory’s shearwaters. Since 2019 the Portuguese bird society SPEA has organised these blackouts with Corvo council, while volunteers pick up grounded chicks and release them at sea. An SPEA survey of 207 residents found unanimous support.

According to figures cited by The Guardian, more than 30,000 chicks have been rescued in the Azores since 2015, about 6,000 of them on Corvo. Shearwaters also breed off Spain’s coasts, including Mediterranean islands, so the small island’s example makes sense here too: sometimes switching off unnecessary lights for a few nights is enough.