Azores Birds, Azores Economy, Azores Flowers, Azores Forest, Azores Lakes, Azores Travel, Bird Watching Azores, Hiking Nordeste Azores, Nordeste Azores, ponta delgada, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel Tours

Raising from the Atlantic ocean, 1500 km from mainland Europe are nine magical islands known as the Azores. The seas surrounding these beautiful islands are home to a fantastic variety of marine life, such as dolphins, whales, and sea turtles. At the same time, flocks of birds adorn the coastlines and enchanting forests of these unique islands. The Azores islands are home to one of the few regions still in Europe with that native Laurel forests that have been in existence since the time of dinosaurs and are considered the prehistoric forest. Over time and through the introduction of other trees and plants from other regions to the Azores, much of the Laurel forests were cut down. However, there are still areas in the Azores where they exist. It is here that many of the unique and rare birds native to the region still live. The local government has invested a great deal of interest in preserving and enhancing current Laurel forests to protect the endangered birds from extinction. The Azores bullfinch or otherwise known as the Priolo bird is a rare bird that is only found to live on the island of Sao Miguel and most notably in the Special Protected Area of Pico de Vara in Nordeste. It is here, the last place on earth that these birds still exist. Once in danger of extinction due to the deforestation of the Laurisilva forests where they lived and feed on flowers and seeds that only grow in those forests. In 1993 the Azorean government as well as “SPEA” which is the Portuguese society for studying birds, took great interest in these endangered birds which were at a few hundred left on the entire planet, now the number is over 1000 and is increasing due to the environmental protections taken over the last two decades. The North part of the island in Nordeste and Povoacao are the best places to go for birdwatching since they have a large particular protected area where the laurisilva forest exists. Here you can see many birds native only to this region. It is important to respect the forest when entering and try to leave everything as it was, minimizing the human footprint in this sensitive eco-system. The Special Protected Area covers just over 6,000 hectors that cover between Nordeste and Povoacao county.