Birdwatching on Flores: the Lagoa Branca hide, the Alagoa tern islets and October's American vagrants

Flores gives birders two different trips. From April to August the coast is busy with breeding seabirds: the islets off the north-east hold some of the best roseate tern numbers in the Azores, and Cory's shearwaters come in to the cliffs at dusk. In October the island turns into a place to search for North American songbirds and waders blown across the Atlantic, with far fewer birders than on Corvo next door. This guide covers where to look in each season, what the official sources say lives there, the places you may not go, and what to do with a young shearwater on the road in October and November.

• April to August is the tern season. The 2026 Nature Park management plan sets April to August as the nesting period for terns around the Alagoa islets and plans to manage boat traffic there in those months.
• Cory's shearwaters breed on the coast from spring to autumn. The young leave their burrows in October and November, which is when the SOS Cagarro rescue campaign runs.
• October is the month for American vagrants. What turns up depends on the weather systems crossing the Atlantic, so a good week cannot be booked in advance.

The Observatório de Aves da Lagoa Branca is a hide beside one of the crater lakes on the central plateau, at the edge of the Morro Alto e Pico da Sé nature reserve. Visit Portugal describes it as a place to watch American birds stopping over on migration and says it is reached on a footpath laid out so as not to disturb the place. The 2026 management plan lists it as an existing facility to be maintained, improved and given updated information panels, so expect it to be there but not necessarily in perfect repair.

The hide is on the PR03FLO, the official trail from the Lagoas Negra and Comprida viewpoint down to Fajã Grande and the Poço do Bacalhau waterfall: 7 km, about three hours, graded hard. The trail page says you can see the little egret, a migrant, on the route, and the largest inland concentration of common terns on the island. If you only want the hide, walk out to it from the road and back rather than doing the whole descent. An older geocache description from 2011 suggests parking on the Ferros Velhos road to the east or on the unpaved Morro Alto access road to the west.

Stay on the path. Most of the plateau around Morro Alto is now an integral protection area under the 2026 plan, which means no access off the marked trails and roads. The plateau also makes its own weather, and the trail page warns of rain and fog; on a foggy morning you will see nothing from the hide, so go when the lakes are clear.

The plan also names the Azores wood pigeon (pombo-torcaz dos Açores) as the priority bird to monitor in the reserves of the interior, so keep an eye on the forest edges on the drive up.

BirdLife's Important Bird Area "Costa das Flores" covers about 9.5 square kilometres of coast in three stretches: the low shore from Santa Cruz round to Fajã Grande, the high cliffs between Mosteiro and Lajes, and the cliff at Caveira, about 300 metres high. It takes in some 20 islets, and BirdLife names Baixa do Moinho and the "Ilhéu da Lagoa" as the most important; the regional texts call the second group the Alagoa islets. Both have had a roseate tern monitoring programme since 1993, and in some years this stretch holds the best roseate tern numbers in the archipelago. Common terns nest there too.

The main threat BirdLife lists for the tern colonies is people. The 2026 plan therefore puts the Ilhéus da Alagoa, Baixa do Moinho and Ponta do Burquilhão under integral protection and plans signs in the harbours of Santa Cruz and Ponta Delgada saying they may not be visited. Do not land, and if you are out in a kayak or a boat between April and August, keep well off.

You watch from above instead. The plan lists the Miradouro dos Caimbros, which looks down on Baía da Alagoa and its islets from the road north of Santa Cruz, and the Miradouro da Alagoa among the viewpoints of this coast. Binoculars are the minimum here, and a telescope helps with birds on the islets offshore. Our guide to the north of Flores covers the road, Baía da Alagoa and Ponta Delgada.

The sea around Flores and Corvo is a marine Key Biodiversity Area of about 2,099 square kilometres, assessed in 2008 and described in its factsheet as the largest proposed Important Bird Area in the archipelago. Its factsheet gives about 73,000 Cory's shearwaters for the two islands, more than 580 pairs of little shearwater, and 200 pairs of Manx shearwater, which nest nowhere else in the Azores. Madeiran storm-petrels breed here too, in small numbers.

You do not need a boat to see the commonest of them. The official PR02FLO page, for the 13.2 km walk from Lajedo to Fajã Grande, says the coastal cliffs are nesting areas for Cory's shearwater, common tern and roseate tern. Cory's shearwaters feed at sea all day and come back to the cliffs around dusk, when you hear them before you see them. Any west or south-west viewpoint works on a calm evening.

Little shearwaters and storm-petrels are night birds that nest in burrows on islets and cliffs, and you will not see them from land. The island's boat trips go out for sea caves and waterfalls rather than birds; our boat trips guide has the operators and 2026 prices.

Flores and Corvo are the westernmost islands of the Azores, and Visit Azores names them as the islands for American passerines. Corvo, small and with one village, draws most of the visiting birders. Flores is bigger and quieter, which means more ground to cover and less chance that someone else has already found the bird.

Fajã Grande on the west coast is the best-known spot. Birdingplaces, a European birding site guide, calls it the best place in the Azores for North American vagrants, especially waders, and lists lesser yellowlegs, spotted sandpiper, Swainson's thrush and dark-eyed junco among its top species, alongside Cory's shearwater. Work the fields, gardens and stream mouths under the cliff, slowly, and come back after every front.

The north is worth a morning too. One visiting birder's log from October 2014 has a semipalmated plover and a bobolink at Ponta Delgada and a scarlet tanager at Ponta do Albarnaz in the same week, and notes that only a handful of birders worked Flores that month against more than 40 on Corvo. That was one week in one autumn; yours will be different.

If news breaks on Corvo, Atlânticoline's Pink Line crosses from Santa Cruz in about 40 minutes, but it has 12 seats, and from the second half of October 2026 it sailed on Tuesdays and Saturdays only, out at 10:00 and back at 16:00. Our Corvo day trip guide has the pattern by season; check the timetable for your dates and book early.

• No landing on the Ilhéu de Maria Vaz off the north-west, an integral nature reserve, or on the Alagoa islets and Baixa do Moinho.
• Taking eggs or destroying nests is prohibited in the protected coastal areas.
• Off-trail walking is prohibited on the plateau's integral protection area around Morro Alto.
• Drone flights over the protected areas are regulated by the same plan; our Nature Park rules guide explains the detail.

Every autumn young Cory's shearwaters leave their burrows at night, get confused by street lights and land on roads and in villages, where they cannot take off again. The 2026 SOS Cagarro campaign is the 32nd and runs from 15 October to 15 November 2026. In 2025 more than 7,500 young birds were picked up across the Azores, and more than 100,000 since the campaign began.

If you find one:

• Cover its head with a towel or a jumper and pick it up gently. It may bite.
• Put it in a box with air holes and close it.
• Call the SOS Cagarro line, 800 292 800, and they will tell you where to take it.

Do not release it yourself unless it is daylight and the sea is calm. Drive slowly in villages after dark in these weeks.

The Boqueirão Environmental Interpretation Centre in Santa Cruz, in the old whale-oil tanks of the whaling factory, covers the island's resident and migratory birds as well as its sea life. Its published 2026 hours are every day from 1 April to 31 October, 09:00 to 12:30 and 13:30 to 17:00, and only on weekdays from November to March; it can close in bad weather, so phone ahead (+351 292 542 447). Our Santa Cruz guide has the rest of the town.

When is the best time for birdwatching on Flores? October for American vagrants, April to August for breeding terns, and spring to autumn for Cory's shearwaters at dusk.

Is there a bird hide on Flores? Yes: the Observatório de Aves da Lagoa Branca on the central plateau, reached from the PR03FLO trail. The 2026 management plan lists it for maintenance and new information panels.

Can I visit the tern islets? No. The Alagoa islets, Baixa do Moinho and the Ilhéu de Maria Vaz are under integral protection, and landing is prohibited. Watch from the Caimbros and Alagoa viewpoints.

Is Flores or Corvo better for vagrants in October? Corvo has more birders and a small area to search. Flores has fewer birders and more ground. If you stay on Flores, the Atlânticoline boat can take you across when news comes from Corvo, on the days it sails.

• Diário da República, Decreto Regulamentar Regional 16/2026/A, Flores Nature Park management plan (5 August 2026)
• Key Biodiversity Areas, Costa das Flores
• Key Biodiversity Areas, Corvo e Flores (marine)
• Visit Portugal, Lagoa Branca bird observatory
• Azores Trails, PR03FLO Miradouro das Lagoas - Poço do Bacalhau
• Azores Trails, PR02FLO Lajedo - Fajã Grande
• Visit Azores, bird watching
• Birdingplaces, Fajã Grande
• Cream Tea Birding, Flores, October 2014
• RTP Açores, start of the 32nd SOS Cagarro campaign (15 October 2026)
• Terra Azul, what to do with a grounded cagarro
• Visit Azores, Boqueirão Environmental Interpretation Centre