Ten of Bermuda's Cahows - an endangered species of bird endemic to the Island - are making a new home on Nonsuch Island after being exiled for almost 350 years.

The species has been delicately brought back from the brink of extinction over the past 40 years but they took a hard hit last September when Hurricane Fabian damaged many of the small islets off Castle Island.

The rocky outcrops, just west of Nonsuch Island, were home to their nests. Like most homes in Bermuda, they did not fare well in the category three hurricane.

“We had to either rebuild or replace the Cahow nests after massive chunks of the islands were lost during the storm,” Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros said yesterday.

The Cahows were at sea when Fabian hit and luckily none were lost in the storm. In order to help the Cahows survive long into the future, however, Mr. Madeiros is working with Nicholas Carlile, a senior project officer from the Department of Environment and Conservation New South Wales in Australia.

They recently translocated ten Cahow chicks to Nonsuch Island. “It's like the return of an exiled people who were once forced to leave,” Mr. Madeiros said after a successful feeding session with the chicks on Wednesday.

Mr. Madeiros had been hoping for some time to slowly re-introduce Cahows to the Island - which is a living history museum that has been painstakingly restored to reflect what the first Bermuda settlers would have found in the 1600s.

All non-endemic species of plants and animals are constantly being removed from Nonsuch to preserve and protect the more fragile and unique endemics. And now concrete burrows have been added for the relocating birds along with polyurethane boxes built and designed by Mr. Carlile.

Mr. Carlile has worked with sea birds such as petrels for 15 years in his native Australia.

“He is one of the world authorities on setting up sea bird colonies,” said Mr. Madeiros.

New Cahow burrows, dug into the soil, scatter the Cahow's new homestead. They are similar to the nests that would have existed four centuries ago when the first settlers came to Bermuda.

The Cahows have an extremely acute sense of where they live. To successfully relocate chicks, they must be moved with precision timing as once they begin to leave the nest they study the stars of the night sky and memorise their position.

With their exact position carefully imprinted on their minds, juvenile chicks eventually leave Bermuda and spend at least five years at sea before returning to the Island and mating.

It is crucial to the species survival that they find their way home. But if their homes are wiped out by storms while they are at sea, they won't find them.

Nonsuch offers better protection against hurricanes. It admirably survived Fabian and is much better suited to the long-term needs of the Cahows.

Once thought extinct, the Cahows were rediscovered in the 1950s by former Government Conservation Officer Dr. David Wingate, who began offering the species a helping hand for survival.

There were only 17 pairs of Cahows left when he stumbled upon them, today there are 70.

But for a species to be removed from the endangered list there should be over 1,000 pairs. The experiences of the Australians are helping conservationists in Bermuda, however.

Mr. Carhile was recently successful in translocating the Gould petrel in New South Wales and is expecting to use the research recorded in Bermuda to aid further translocations and techniques.

The Australians have been so successful in their efforts to bring back the Gould petrel it may soon be removed from the endangered species list.

Mr. Carlile also introduced Mr. Madeiros to new feeding techniques and it was obvious at Wednesday's feeding session the birds were taking to their new “daddy”. To feed the chick, Mr. Madeiros opens the razor sharp beak of the bird and puts the day's selection of either squid or pilchard down the bird's throat.

“Now I just stroke under its eyes to help them swallow,” he said. “A Cahow cuddle if you like - they get a stroke under the eye which the adult would do to feed them.”

“It encourages them to swallow so they don't regurgitate on your lap. Then they'll burp and that's when you know they've completely swallowed,” Mr. Madeiros said. Cahow number 819 burps and then it's on to the next downy-covered chick. Each bird is weighed and their wings are measured before they are fed.

“It's exceeding our expectations,” Mr. Madeiros said of the success of the Cahow move. Mr. Madeiros hopes that, not only will the Cahow be safer, but that their return to Nonsuch will also aid the island in growth through the birds' droppings.