The Bird Guardians of Linosa

On the small Italian island of Linosa, the haunting calls of Scopoli’s shearwaters may have inspired the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey. Almost impossible to spot by day, these mysterious seabirds return under cover of darkness to the same nesting crevices and lifelong partners, following annual journeys of up to 50,000 kilometres across the Atlantic.

Since 2017, Italian scientist Giacomo Dell’Omo has returned to Linosa each breeding season to study and protect its shearwater colony. Now joined by his daughter Eleonora and fellow researchers, he follows the birds from nesting in May to the chicks’ emergence in July and their departure in October. While one parent incubates their single egg, the other travels far into the Mediterranean in search of small fish and squid. Infrared cameras reveal intimate nocturnal scenes of pair bonding, territorial disputes and family life rarely witnessed by humans.

The birds face growing threats. Introduced rats and cats prey on the colony, human settlement restricts nesting habitat, and hotter summers and fishing nets and hooks increase the risks at sea. Together with Stefania Casagrande of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Dell’Omo is testing GPS and Bluetooth tracking technology to understand their movements and encourage safer fishing practices.

As the adults embark on their remarkable migrations and young birds prepare for a future return to Linosa, this documentary reveals the hidden lives of one of the Mediterranean’s most elusive seabirds and the dedicated efforts to secure their survival.