One of the world’s rarest birds — once thought extinct for over 300 years — has been spotted off the Kerry coast.
The Bermuda petrel, better known as the Cahow, was observed by crew members of the Celtic Voyager — the Irish Marine Institute’s research vessel.
The “astonishing” sighting of the endangered seabird took place off Kerry on Monday. Within hours, the Bermuda Audubon Society confirmed the report through data emitted by the bird’s electronic geolocator.
The medium-sized Cahow is the national bird of Bermuda.
It is currently being “laboriously brought back from the brink” by conservationists with only about 180 of the species known to exist.
A slow-breeding ground-nester, the bird was wiped out during the 1600s when colonisation of the North Atlantic island introduced species such as boars, cats, dogs and rats.
It was rediscovered on the island in 1951.
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