The Bonin Islands, also known as the Ogasawara Islands, or, Yslas del Arzobispo, are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands in Micronesia, some 1,000 kilometres directly south of Tokyo, Japan. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word bunin, meaning "no people" or "uninhabited". The only inhabited islands of the group are Chichijima (父島), the seat of the municipal government, and Hahajima (母島). However, archeological evidence has revealed that some of the islands were prehistorically inhabited by members of an unknown Micronesian ethnicity.
Ogasawara is a village in Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan, that governs the Bonin Islands, Volcano Islands, and three remote islands.
Chichijima, formerly known as Peel Island is the largest island in the Ogasawara archipelago. Chichijima is about 240 km (150 mi) north of Iwo Jima. The island is within the political boundaries of Ogasawara Village, Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo, Japan. Around 2,000 people live on its land area of 23.5 km2 (9.1 sq mi).
Hahajima is the second-largest island of the Ogasawara Islands south of the Japanese main island chain. It is about 21 km2 (8 sq mi) in area with a population of 440.
The Ogasawara subtropical moist forests is a terrestrial ecoregion which encompasses the Ogasawara Archipelago of Japan. The Ogasawara Archipelago lies in the Pacific Ocean south of Honshu, Japan's largest island, and north of the Marianas Islands. The ecoregion includes the Bonin Islands and Volcano Islands chains. The islands are volcanic in origin, and have never been linked to a continent. They are home to distinct plants and animals including many endemic species.
The Bonin wood pigeon was a pigeon endemic to Nakodo-jima and Chichi-jima in the Ogasawara Islands, south of Japan. It is known from four recorded specimens, the first from 1827 and the last from 1889. They averaged a length of 45 cm. This pigeon died out late in the 19th century as a result of deforestation, hunting, and predation by introduced rats and cats.
Grosbeak is a form taxon containing various species of seed-eating passerine birds with large beaks. Although they all belong to the superfamily Passeroidea, these birds are not part of a natural group but rather a polyphyletic assemblage of distantly related songbirds. Some are cardueline finches in the family Fringillidae, while others are cardinals in the family Cardinalidae; one is a member of the weaver family Ploceidae. The word "grosbeak", first applied in the late 1670s, is a partial translation of the French grosbec, where gros means "large" and bec means "beak".
Ogasawara National Park is a national park in the Ogasawara Islands, located approximately one thousand kilometres to the south of Tokyo, Japan. The park was established in 1972 within the municipality of Ogasawara, itself part of Tokyo. In 2011, the Ogasawara Islands were inscribed upon the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Mukojima white-eye, incorrectly known as the Mukojima honeyeater, is the extinct nominate subspecies of the Bonin white-eye. It occurred on Muko-jima and Nakodo-jima in the northern group of the Ogasawara Islands. The last record were specimens taken in January 1930 on Muko-jima; by then, the bird was already gone from Nakodo-jima. In 1941, the subspecies was found to have gone extinct in the meantime.
The Bonin thrush, also known as Kittlitz's thrush or the Bonin Islands thrush, is an extinct species of Asian thrush. It is sometimes separated as the only species of the genus Cichlopasser. The only place where this bird was found was Chichi-jima in the Ogasawara Islands; it might conceivably have inhabited Anijima and Otōtojima, but this has not been borne out by observations or specimens. The species was only once observed by a naturalist, its discoverer Heinrich von Kittlitz. He encountered the thrush in the coastal woods where it usually kept to the ground; it may have been ground-nesting. The only specimens ever taken are in the Naturalis in Leiden (1), the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna (1), the Senckenbergmuseum in Frankfurt (1) and in the Zoological Museum, St. Petersburg (2).
The Bonin white-eye or meguro (メグロ) is a small songbird endemic to the Bonin Islands of Japan. It is the only species in the genus Apalopteron. Its taxonomic affinities were a long-standing mystery and it has been placed with the bulbuls, babblers and more recently with the honeyeaters, during which it was known as the Bonin honeyeater. Since 1995 it is known to be a white-eye in the family Zosteropidae, that is closely related to the golden white-eye of the Marianas Islands.
The Bonin nankeen night heron is an extinct subspecies of the nankeen night heron.
Sturdee's pipistrelle, also known as the Bonin pipistrelle bat, is a bat that was thought to have lived in Japan before officially becoming extinct in 2000. In 2020 the IUCN changed its official status to "extinct".
The Bonin flying fox, Bonin fruit bat, or in Japanese Ogasawara giant bat is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is endemic to four islands in Ogasawara Islands, Japan. Its natural habitat is subtropical forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Mandarina luhuana is an extinct species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Bradybaenidae. This species is endemic to Chichi-jima and Minami-jima of the Bonin Islands in Japan.
Ogasawarana yoshiwarana is a species of land snail with an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Helicinidae, the helicinids.
Ogasawara Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The subprefecture covers the Ogasawara Archipelago, and is coterminous with the village of Ogasawara; and the prefectural government maintains a main office on Chichijima and a branch office on Hahajima.
Panulirus brunneiflagellum is a species of spiny lobster that lives around the Ogasawara Group of southern Japan. Its members were previously included in P. japonicus, although it may be more closely related to P. femoristriga. It has been fished for more than 150 years by Japanese fishermen, who call the species aka-ebi. It differs from related species by the lack of banding along the flagella of the first pair of antennae.
Nathaniel Savory was one of the first American colonists who is said to have settled on the Ogasawara Islands. He eventually became governor, and played an active role in government before and during the colonization by Japan.
