Güvercinada — Turkish for Pigeon Island — sits just offshore from the harbour and gives Kuşadası its name (Bird Island). A 350-metre causeway connects it to the mainland, so the walk out and back makes a pleasant hour. The small island is dominated by a Byzantine-and-Ottoman fortress on its summit, with thick walls, a watchtower, and a few cannons on the seaward side.
The fortress is free to enter and the views back along the bay and across to the Greek island of Samos are worth the short climb. Locals come here for sunset; vendors sell tea and roasted corn at the foot of the causeway. The pigeons that gave the island its name are still around, although in much smaller numbers than in Ottoman times.