Zino's petrel calling over Pico do Arieiro at night

Zino's petrel / freira-da-Madeira (Pterodroma madeira, 65–80 pairs); Manx shearwater on the way up. Maciço Montanhoso Oriental, Madeira (Pico do Arieiro – Pico Ruivo), Portugal.

Best time: 15 May – 15 Jul (May to July). Where: Pico do Arieiro summit car park (1,818 m), PR1 Vereda do Areeiro – first stretch towards Pico Ruivo, Achada do Teixeira (Santana side) (Portugal). Time of day: Nothing until full dark.

• Partly on your own
• Free
• No binoculars needed
• Sound 5/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 15 May – 15 Jul. Mid May to mid July: pairs courting and incubating, calling from about 30 min after dark until dawn; moonless nights are best but they call on moonlit nights too

Active from 1 Apr to 30 Sep (April to September) in a typical year.

Time of day

Nothing until full dark; calls begin about 30 min after nightfall and continue until first light, with the densest bursts between 22:30 and 01:00. The guided night expedition runs roughly 22:30–23:30.

• Petrel calls over the ridge: 30 min after last light → 01:00
• Last calls before dawn: 2 h before first light → 30 min before first light

What will you hear?

One of Europe's rarest sounds: the long, mournful, tawny-owl-like moan of Zino's petrels circling the summit ridge in the dark, answered from the nesting ledges, with the occasional whimper and the quieter cackle of Manx shearwaters lower down — above a sea of cloud, in total silence otherwise.

Binoculars?

No binoculars needed. Invisible — birds pass overhead in the dark at 1,800 m. This is a listening event; a head torch for the path, nothing else.

Where to go

• Pico do Arieiro summit car park (1,818 m) — Road-end car park and viewpoint, open at all hours; the petrels fly over the ridge north of the summit. Parking is scarce at sunrise and sunset. Map
• PR1 Vereda do Areeiro – first stretch towards Pico Ruivo — The ridge path; the nesting ledges lie on the cliffs below it — stay on the path, no lights towards the cliffs. Map
• Achada do Teixeira (Santana side) — Trailhead for Pico Ruivo from the north; quieter car park, petrels audible on the upper path. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Drive the ER202 to the Pico do Arieiro summit car park (free, open all night) and listen from the viewpoint or the first few hundred metres of the PR1 path after full dark; do not leave the path or approach the cliffs — the nesting zone itself is closed at night without IFCN authorisation. The nesting zone itself may only be entered at night with IFCN authorisation or a licensed guide.

Cost: Car park and path free.

Free or no-guide alternative: Free: the Pico do Arieiro car park and the paved PR1 ridge path are open at night — on a calm, dark night in June the calls carry to the viewpoint without going anywhere near the ledges.

Field-recording notes

Ears-only event and a sensitive one: the ledges are the species' entire world and IFCN requires authorisation for night visits to the nesting zone — listen from the car park and the paved PR1 without leaving the path, no torches on the cliffs, no playback ever. Wind on the ridge is the limit; pick a calm night with no moon. The Arieiro radar station hums faintly; otherwise the mountain is silent above the cloud. Entering the nesting zone at night needs IFCN authorisation; licensed night guiding exists.

Sources

• IFCN Madeira – Freira-da-Madeira project (nesting ledges, season, authorisation for night visits)
• Birdingplaces – Pico do Arieiro (guide required for the petrel sites)
• Wikipedia – Zino's petrel (phenology, calls, population)

Similar spectacles

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More: all spectacles in Portugal · shearwaters · wildlife at night · Portugal in May · Portugal in June · Portugal in July