Bermuda’s national bird has bred in record-breaking numbers this year, according to a conservationist.

Jeremy Madeiros, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ principal scientist for terrestrial conservation, said that 164 pairs of cahows bred during this season, an increase from last year’s record of 156.

This matched Mr Madeiros’s hope that eight new pairs would lay eggs this season.

He said earlier this year: “The first returning adult cahows were recorded on Green Island by December 30 and we are now waiting for the imminent return of the rest of the population in early January 2023 to lay their single eggs and begin the 53-day incubation period.”

The first chick hatched in late February and the final ones hatched on or after March 22.

The average cahow weighs between 50 and 60 grams after hatching and takes three months to fully mature.

Mr Madeiros said: “All the chicks [this season] seem to be at normal or well above normal weight for this point in their development.”

The cahow — also known as the Bermuda petrel — was believed to have been wiped out by the 1620s, but the species was rediscovered in 1951.

At the time, the population was limited to 18 breeding pairs, which laid seven or eight chicks a year.

Thanks to conservation efforts since then, the species is now thriving on islands off mainland Bermuda, particularly on Nonsuch, where work has been done to set up a colony.

Almost half the chicks who were translocated to Nonsuch Island returned to the site last year.

Mr Madeiros said: “[Nonsuch] is where a bulk of the new population growth is taking place; it is like they instinctively know that it is a much safer habitat, much higher and is not affected at all by even the worst hurricanes.

“The other islands are getting more and more affected due to a steady sea-level rise and the number of hurricane impacts we have had over the last 20 or 25 years.”

People can watch Bermuda’s national bird in action 24 hours a day, on Cahow Cam.