What does cahow mean?
The cahow is a nocturnal seabird known scientifically as the Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma cahow), found breeding nowhere else in the world but on small rocky islets off Bermuda. Its name echoes the eerie call that once filled the islands' nights before rats and hunting drove it from the mainland after human settlement in the early seventeenth century. Long presumed extinct, the species was sensationally rediscovered in 1951, when a tiny remnant colony was found on Castle Harbour islets. Since then it has become a celebrated symbol of conservation, with intensive management — including artificial burrows on Nonsuch Island — helping numbers slowly recover. For Bermudians the cahow is the national bird; for naturalists worldwide it is a striking example of a 'Lazarus species', an animal brought back from presumed extinction through protection and persistence.
nounA nocturnal seabird of the North Atlantic, the Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma cahow), which nests only on small islets off Bermuda. The name is also applied more generally to related gadfly petrels of the Caribbean.
- The Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma cahow), a rare nocturnal seabird endemic to Bermuda.
- Any of certain Caribbean petrels whose cries resemble the bird's call.
"After centuries of absence from the main island, the cahow once again haunts the night skies over Bermuda."
"Conservationists carefully monitor every cahow burrow during the breeding season."
"Sailors of the sixteenth century dreaded the eerie night-time cries of the cahow."
The plural is formed regularly with -s; there is no irregular or uncountable usage.
"Rangers ringed dozens of young cahows this season."
The cahow was believed extinct for over 300 years — until a single surviving colony of just 18 pairs was rediscovered on tiny rock islets off Bermuda in 1951.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cahow
The word cahow is almost certainly onomatopoeic in origin, imitating the bird's distinctive nocturnal cry, which early European sailors to Bermuda recorded in the seventeenth century. It entered English through the writings of colonists and explorers describing the Atlantic's remote islands. The same imitative impulse produced similar local names for petrels elsewhere in the Caribbean, though no secure cognates exist in other languages.
How cahow is actually used
The word carries strong local and conservation connotations for Bermudians, for whom the cahow is the national bird. Outside ornithological and regional contexts it is uncommon, so it may need brief glossing for general readers.
Easily confused with cahow
A chough is a red-billed crow of coastal Eurasia; a cahow is a nocturnal Bermudian petrel — the two share a similar sound but are unrelated birds.