Bird Island, also known as Man-O-War Caye, is an island of the Central American country of Belize.
Bird Island is a cay and bird sanctuary located near Tobacco Caye in the western Caribbean. The island is home to frigatebirds and red-footed boobies and tourists are not allowed to dock or set foot on it. In 2001, a hurricane destroyed the mangrove forest on the island, yet birds continued to roost. The forest has since regrown and the ecosystem restored.
A 1.2m ha site off the coast of Belize, comprising the nation’s offshore and barrier islands, has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of several resident, passage or breeding bird species, including white-crowned pigeons, red-footed boobies, roseate terns, Yucatan vireos, black catbirds, and golden-winged and cerulean warblers. The IBA encompasses the South Water Caye, Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes, Sapodilla Cayes and Glover's Reef marine reserves, Half Moon Caye, Laughing Bird Caye and Man-O-War Caye islands, as well as several spawning aggregations. [1]
St. George's Caye is an island in the Caribbean Sea, eight miles east of Belize City. It is part of the Belize District of Belize, Central America. The village on the island is also known as St. George's Caye. As of 2000, St. George's Caye had a permanent population of about 20 people.
The red-footed booby is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are found widely in the tropics, and breed colonially in coastal regions, especially islands. The species faces few natural or man-made threats, although its population is declining; it is considered to be a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Saint Giles Island is the largest in a group of small islands off the north-eastern tip of Tobago, in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago.
Pedro Bank is a large bank of sand and coral, partially covered with seagrass, about 80 km south and south-west of Jamaica, rising steeply from a seabed of 800 m depth.
Caye Chapel is a small, private island in Belize, 16 miles (26 km) north-northeast of Belize City and 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Caye Caulker. It was once owned by Isaiah Emmanuel Morter, Belize's first African millionaire.
Tobacco Caye is a tiny island in Belize, about 10 miles east of Dangriga.
Laughing Bird Caye is an island off the coast of Placencia, Belize. On 21 December 1991, Laughing Bird Caye National Park was declared. It is spread over an area of 1.8 acres (0.73 ha). The island is named after a population of laughing gulls which previously bred there.
Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserve is a former nature reserve in Australia’s Coral Sea Islands Territory that was incorporated into the new Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve in December 2012. The former nature reserve together with the Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve is part of the Coral Sea Reserves Ramsar Site. Its extent is also within the Coringa-Herald Reefs Important Bird Area.
Glover's Reef is a partially submerged atoll located off the southern coast of Belize, approximately 45 kilometres from the mainland. It forms part of the outermost boundary of the Belize Barrier Reef, and is one of its three atolls, besides Turneffe Atoll and Lighthouse Reef.
Half Moon Caye is an island and natural monument of Belize located at the southeast corner of Lighthouse Reef Atoll. This natural monument was the first nature reserve to have been established in Belize under the National Park Systems Act in 1981 and first marine protected area in Central America. This is also Belize's oldest site of wildlife protection since it was first designated as a bird sanctuary in 1924 to protect the habitat of the red-footed booby birds.
The Sapodilla Cayes is an uninhabited atoll in the Gulf of Honduras, in the Toledo District of Belize. They are administered by Belize, but Guatemala claims that the Belize–Guatemala maritime boundary is northwest of the cayes. Honduras also lays a claim to the Sapodilla Cayes in its 1982 constitution.
South Water Caye Marine Reserve is the largest marine reserve in the Stann Creek district of Belize. It was established in 1996 and covers 47,702 hectares of mangrove and coastal ecosystems. It includes the crown reserve of Man-O-War Caye, a nesting site for the brown booby and magnificent frigatebird. In 2017, National Geographic named Pelican Beach on South Water Caye one of the 21 best beaches in the world.
Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve (GSSCMR) is a protected marine reserve in the central part of Belize's Barrier Reef. It covers approximately 25,980 acres (10,510 ha) lying 36 kilometres (22 mi) off the coast of Placencia. Established in 2003, The reserve comes under the authority of the government's Fisheries Department, but is managed by the Southern Environmental Association, a community-based organisation.
The South-west Saint Helena Important Bird Area is a 45 km2 tract of land covering about 37% of the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports several colonies of breeding seabirds, including the red-billed tropicbird, as well as habitat of the endemic, and critically endangered, Saint Helena plover.
Turneffe Atoll is located southeast of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, off the coast of Belize in Central America, 20 miles from Belize City. It is one of three atolls of the Belize Barrier Reef, along with Glover's Reef and Lighthouse Reef. It is approximately 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, making it the largest coral atoll in Belize and in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. The atoll was officially declared a marine reserve on November 22, 2012.
The Central Manrove Wetland is a large area of mangrove dominated wetland on Grand Cayman, one of the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean Sea. It is one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
Lighthouse Reef is an atoll in the Caribbean Sea, the easternmost part of the Belize Barrier Reef and one of its three atolls, the other two being Turneffe Atoll and Glover's Reef. Lighthouse Reef is located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) southeast of Belize City. The atoll is of oblong shape, approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) long from north to south, and about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) wide. It forms a shallow sandy lagoon with an area of 120 square kilometres (46 sq mi) and a depth between 2 and 6 metres deep.
Harvest Caye is a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line, located in southern Belize. The caye features wildlife exhibitions including a blue morpho butterfly house.
Ranguana Caye is a private island with a total area of two acres, approximately 20 miles west of Placencia, Belize. The island harbors a dock and moorings for visiting boats which is located just off the Belize Barrier Reef. Daytime visits are available through RanguanaCaye.com, and you can spend a night in the cabins located there as well. The island features different activities like paddleboarding in crystal clear water, fishing, kayaking, hammock napping, sunbathing, and playing beach games. The Edge of Paradise Bar & Grill located at the front of the island offers a variety of food and drinks that are freshly made and served throughout the day
The Belizean reef mangroves ecoregion covers the mangrove habitats along the islands and cayes of the Belize Barrier Reef. This ecoregion is distinct from the mainland Belizean Coast mangroves ecoregion, and may be considered a sub-unit of the overall Mesoamerican Gulf-Caribbean mangroves ecoregion.
17°21′N88°18′W / 17.350°N 88.300°W
 | This Belize-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
