Several factors argue for the translocation of endangered endemic Seychelles land
birds to Bird Island. Following the eradication of ship rats Rattus rattus in 1995,
Bird was the largest of four islands in the Central Seychelles without introduced
predators (rats or cats). The Cocos–Pisonia forest of Bird Island is superficially
similar to that of Cousin Island, where populations of three endangered endemic
land birds occur. Pisonia leaves support high densities of invertebrates, and are
favoured for feeding by small endemic insectivorous birds including the Seychelles
warbler Acrocephalus sechellensis (Komdeur et al. 1991) and the Seychelles fody
Foudia sechellarum (Bathe and Bathe 1982), while Seychelles magpie robin
Copsychus sechellarum feeds on invertebrates such as cockroaches on the forest