- Where
- Gulf of St Lawrence, 3.5 km off the Gaspé
5 km south-east of Percé - Coordinates
- 48.4950° N
64.1650° W - Area
- 4.16 km²
(Wikipedia) - Gannets
- 51,700 pairs in 2011
(Wikipedia) - Protected
- Bird sanctuary since 1919
Quebec national park since 1985 - Getting there
- Summer boats from Percé
then a forest trail - Best visited
- June to early October (the park season)
The boat went round a great rock with a hole clean through it before it set us down, and a quiet path climbed through spruce across the island. I heard the colony first, then smelled it. At the cliff top the ground was white with birds past all counting, each sitting just out of pecking reach of the next. I sat down and lost the afternoon.
The short answer
Île Bonaventure, Bonaventure Island in English, is a roughly circular island of 4.16 square kilometres in the Gulf of St Lawrence, 3.5 kilometres off the south coast of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula and five kilometres south-east of the village of Percé, Wikipedia records. It has been a migratory bird sanctuary since 1919, under the 1916 Migratory Bird Convention between Canada and the United States, and since 1985 it has formed, with Percé Rock, the Parc national de l’Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé, run by Quebec’s parks agency, Sépaq. Nobody lives on it now. Its best-known residents are its northern gannets.
Why it's worth knowing
A gannet colony you can walk to. The northern gannet is the commonest bird on the island, and the colony is one of the largest in the world: Wikipedia records 51,700 pairs in 2011. The birds nest on the island’s eastern cliff tops, and visitors on the park’s trail can stand at the edge of the colony; Bonjour Québec, the province’s tourism site, and travel guides call it the most accessible gannet colony in the world. Kittiwakes and common murres also nest in large numbers, with razorbills, black guillemots, puffins and Leach’s storm-petrels among the 218 species recorded on the island.
A colony under watch. Gannets are treated as a sentinel species for the Gulf of St Lawrence, and the colony is monitored. In 2022 an outbreak of avian influenza killed large numbers of birds, and the breeding population on the island fell by 39 per cent, the St Lawrence Action Plan’s monitoring sheet on the gannet reports in indexed text; in one small, accessible part of the colony some 450 carcasses were counted.
The field notes
A fishing island emptied
With Percé, the island was one of the early seasonal fishing ports of New France. Settlers from southern Ireland arrived in the early 1790s, and Peter Du Val, from Jersey, set up a fishery there before 1819, Wikipedia records. In 1971 the Province of Quebec expropriated the whole island, and its remaining residents, about 35 families, had to leave. Their houses were kept: the park presents the island’s built heritage, including the Le Boutillier company manager’s house and the Duval, Paget and Bruneau houses, and a restaurant occupies an old company warehouse, Québec Maritime and Sépaq’s interpretation pages report.
Painters and poets
The island drew artists for more than a century. André Breton, staying at Percé in 1944 while writing Arcane 17, wrote that he never tired of watching its birds, and by the 1960s painters and writers spent summers on the island with its families, Wikipedia records; they were evicted with the residents in the 1970s.
The island's cliffs from the boat, August 2013.
Photograph: Michel Rathwell · Bonaventure Island (34768199863) · CC BY 2.0
Northern gannets nesting on red earth, July 2019.
Photograph: Jeangagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
The colony spreading across the clifftop to the sea, July 2019.
Photograph: Jeangagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
A white clapboard house on a green slope, with Percé Rock across the water, July 2012.
Photograph: Andrea Schaffer · Rocher Percé vu à partir de l'île Bonaventure · CC BY 2.0
- Pick the boat that circles the great pierced rock first. The extra time is well spent.
- Count the gannets for the list. Then sit down, because you will not finish, and nobody expects you to.
- The old houses near the wharf were somebody’s homes. Look at them gently, and leave the doors as you find them.
- Stay behind the rope at the colony, downwind where possible, and talk in a whisper.
- Pack a warm layer even in high summer, and wear it for the boat back.
The gannet cliff tops. The plateau and ledges on Île Bonaventure’s eastern side where the island’s northern gannets nest each summer, at the end of the park’s trail Les Colonies, a colony that numbered 51,700 pairs in 2011 by Wikipedia’s figure. The ground there is the island’s own; the birds return to it every year. It is seen from the edge of the colony, behind the park’s barrier.
Tally, in the marginI had thought of the cliff as a place the birds were standing on. After an hour I saw that the birds were most of what the cliff was, and the stone beneath was merely holding them up.
Getting there
How to get there. By road to Percé, at the eastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, then by boat from the Percé wharf. Boat companies run crossings to the island in the park season, and many go round Percé Rock and along the island’s cliffs first. From the landing, the park’s trail Les Colonies leads through the forest to the gannets: 5.6 kilometres and about an hour and a half there and back, by a travel guide’s figures, with longer trails across the island.
When to go. June to early October. In 2026 the park was open from 31 May to 12 October, Bonjour Québec reported. The gannets are on their nests through the summer.
What to arrange ahead. The boat ticket and the park’s entry fee (in 2026, $10.30 for adults, taxes included). Bring warm, windproof layers even in summer, food and water, and good shoes for the trail.
Safety. The State Department has Canada at Level 1, exercise normal precautions (advisory dated 5 June 2026 in its feed, read 5 October 2026), noting petty crime in tourist areas. The hazards here are the place’s own: cliff edges, cold wind off the Gulf, and changeable weather on the crossing.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Île Bonaventure?
Île Bonaventure is an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, 3.5 kilometres off the south coast of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula and five kilometres south-east of the village of Percé, Canada. It covers 4.16 square kilometres.
How many gannets live on Île Bonaventure?
Île Bonaventure’s northern gannet colony, one of the largest in the world, numbered 51,700 pairs in 2011, according to Wikipedia. Avian influenza killed many birds in 2022, and the St Lawrence Action Plan’s monitoring reported a 39 per cent fall in the island’s breeding population.
How do you get to Île Bonaventure?
By boat from the wharf at Percé, in the Gaspé Peninsula, during the park season; many boats circle Percé Rock first. From the landing on Île Bonaventure, the trail Les Colonies leads through the forest to the gannet colony, about 5.6 kilometres there and back.
When is Île Bonaventure open?
Île Bonaventure is open in the summer and early autumn as part of Quebec’s Parc national de l’Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé; in 2026 the season ran from 31 May to 12 October, with an adult entry fee of $10.30.
Does anyone live on Île Bonaventure?
No. The Province of Quebec expropriated Île Bonaventure in 1971, and its remaining residents, about 35 families descended largely from Irish and Jersey settlers, had to leave. Their houses, kept by the park, are part of a visit.
Is Île Bonaventure a national park?
Yes. Since 1985 Île Bonaventure and Percé Rock have formed the Parc national de l’Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé, run by Sépaq. The island has also been a migratory bird sanctuary since 1919.
What birds can you see on Île Bonaventure?
Mostly northern gannets, which nest on Île Bonaventure’s eastern cliff tops, but 218 species have been recorded there, including black-legged kittiwakes, common murres, razorbills, black guillemots, Atlantic puffins and Leach’s storm-petrels, by Wikipedia’s list.
What is Percé Rock?
Percé Rock is the great limestone stack with an arch through it off the village of Percé, which shares a Quebec national park with Île Bonaventure. Boats to Île Bonaventure often pass close to it on the way.