Booby Island is an uninhabited islet in Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is found in The Narrows, the channel between the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, where Booby Island is an approximate midpoint between the islands. Booby Island is cone-shaped, consisting of a steep hill and a rocky shoreline. The island is of interest to ornithology for its bird population, and it is designated as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.
Booby Island is a cone-shaped islet. [1] It is approximately 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in area, [2] with a width of about 38 metres (125 ft) across. [3] Its peak reaches a height of 38 metres (126 ft). [1] The island lies in The Narrows, the channel between the islands of Nevis and St. Kitts, where it is an approximate midpoint between the two islands. [2] It is one of two islands in The Narrows, along with Cow Rock, which measures only 2 metres (6.6 ft) across. [3]
The island is a steep hill with rocky outcroppings and a shoreline is made up of large rocks. [2] A sample of basaltic andesite from Booby Island's southeast coast was predominantly composed of, by weight: silicon dioxide (56.41%), aluminium oxide (17.91%), ferric oxide (8.90%), calcium oxide (6.68%), sodium oxide (3.51%), and magnesium oxide (2.30%). [4]
Booby Island is a major seabird nesting site in St. Kitts and Nevis. [2] [1] BirdLife International designated Booby Island as an Important Bird Area, which includes the entire island and seas up to one kilometre away, for which it has the identification code KN003. [2] Eight species of seabird are found on Booby Island, where nesting season begins in April or May and ends between August and October. [1] The island's brown pelicans are colloquially referred to as boobies. [5]
A 1997 survey of the island's seabird population found that it hosted 400 to 600 nesting pairs. The most common were sooty terns, followed by bridled terns, laughing gulls, roseate terns, and brown noddies. [1] Red-billed tropicbirds can also be found on Booby Island. [2] All of these species are rare to St. Kitts and Nevis and are not found in any part of the country besides Booby Island. [6] In 2008, it was estimated that there were approximately 425 nesting pairs. [2] The seabird population is fragile, as eggs are easily accessible and chasing birds from their nests causes the eggs to quickly overheat. 15 pairs of roseate terns were identified in 1997, but only two were found the following year. [1]
Booby Island is not subject to any special environmental protections. The interior of the island contains dense populations of brushy plants. No mammal populations were discovered on the island in a 2004 survey. [2]
Booby Island is uninhabited. It is controlled by the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis and is not privately owned. The island's geography makes human access challenging, as boats cannot approach and visitors must swim over the rocky shoreline. [2] Fishermen sometimes collect the eggs of laughing gulls and other species of bird, which may have a negative effect on the bird population. [2] [1] Over time, the fishing community of Newcastle has shifted its fishing grounds from the coasts of Nevis and St. Kitts to the coast of Booby Island, to save on fuel use and to avoid overfished areas. [7] Shark attacks are rare, but one incident was documented in 2021 in which an American student was bit by a tiger shark while swimming off the island's coast, resulting in amputation above the knee. [8] [9]
Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles. With 261 square kilometres (101 sq mi) of territory, and roughly 50,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population, as well as the world's smallest sovereign federation. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Charles III as King and head of state.
Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of eleven genera. They are slender, lightly built birds with long, forked tails, narrow wings, long bills, and relatively short legs. Most species are pale grey above and white below, with a contrasting black cap to the head, but the marsh terns, the Inca tern, and some noddies have dark plumage for at least part of the year. The sexes are identical in appearance, but young birds are readily distinguishable from adults. Terns have a non-breeding plumage, which usually involves a white forehead and much-reduced black cap.
The common tern is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are several similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations.
The roseate tern is a species of tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific dougallii refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814). "Roseate" refers to the bird's pink breast in breeding plumage.
The Mud Islands reserve is located within Port Phillip, about 90 km (56 mi) south-west of Melbourne, Australia, lying 10 km (6.2 mi) inside Port Phillip Heads, 7 km (4.3 mi) north of Portsea and 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Queenscliff. The land area of about 50 hectares is made up of three low-lying islands surrounding a shallow tidal 35-hectare (86-acre) lagoon connected to the sea by three narrow channels. The shapes and configuration of the islands change over the years due to movement of sand by tidal currents.
The Skerries, coming from the Old Norse word sker, are a group of sparsely vegetated rocky islets (skerries), with a total area of about 17 hectares lying 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) offshore from Carmel Head at the northwest corner of Anglesey, Wales. The islands are important as a breeding site for seabirds, and they attract divers, who come to visit the numerous shipwrecks. The Skerries Lighthouse sits atop the highest point in the islands.
Saint George Basseterre is one of 14 administrative parishes that make up Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is the largest parish on Saint Kitts and the second largest parish in Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is by far the most populous parish in the federation, holding nearly a third of the country's population. It is home to the city of Basseterre, capital of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and also has a longer coastline than any other parish in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
The great frigatebird is a large seabird in the frigatebird family. There are major nesting populations in the tropical Pacific Ocean, such as Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands; in the Indian Ocean, colonies can be found in the Seychelles and Mauritius, and there is a tiny population in the South Atlantic, mostly on and around St. Helena and Boatswain Bird Island.
The Antarctic tern is a seabird in the family Laridae. It ranges throughout the southern oceans and is found on small islands around Antarctica as well as on the shores of the mainland. Its diet consists primarily of small fish and crustaceans. It is very similar in appearance to the closely related Arctic tern, but it is stockier, and it is in its breeding plumage in the southern summer, when the Arctic tern has shed old feathers to get its non-breeding plumage. The Antarctic tern does not migrate like the Arctic tern does, but it can still be found on a very large range. This tern species is actually more closely related to the South American tern.
Battowia or Bettowia is one of the Grenadine islands which lie between the Caribbean islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada. Politically, it is part of the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
A bird colony is a large congregation of individuals of one or more species of bird that nest or roost in proximity at a particular location. Many kinds of birds are known to congregate in groups of varying size; a congregation of nesting birds is called a breeding colony. Colonial nesting birds include seabirds such as auks and albatrosses; wetland species such as herons; and a few passerines such as weaverbirds, certain blackbirds, and some swallows. A group of birds congregating for rest is called a communal roost. Evidence of colonial nesting has been found in non-neornithine birds (Enantiornithes), in sediments from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Romania.
Great Tobago is an uninhabited island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, located, along with sister island Little Tobago, approximately six miles west of Jost Van Dyke. The Tobagos are the westernmost of the British Virgin Islands. At 210 acres (85 ha) in size, it is surrounded by steep cliffs that also extend below the water. Since the 1990s, Great Tobago, Little Tobago islands, and nearby Mercurious and Watson Rocks are protected as part of the National Parks Trust.
Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge contains more than 50 offshore islands and four coastal parcels, totaling more than 8,100 acres. The complex spans more than 250 miles of Maine coastline and includes five national wildlife refuges — Petit Manan, Cross Island, Franklin Island, Seal Island, and Pond Island. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the refuge complex as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Eastern Egg Rock Island is an island in the Town of St. George in Knox County in the U.S. state of Maine. It is owned by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), and it is located off the southern Atlantic Coast of the state. Project Puffin, a restoration effort by the Audubon Society, is implemented on Eastern Egg Rock through a contract with the MDIFW.
Dog Island is an uninhabitated small island of 207 ha located approximately 13 km (8.1 mi) to the north-west of Anguilla. It is low and rocky, with three small cays off the west and north coasts. The coastline is characterised by low cliffs alternating with sandy beaches. Large ponds lie inside two of the beaches. Dog Island lies west of the Prickley Pear Cays.
The term seabird is used for many families of birds in several orders that spend the majority of their lives at sea. Seabirds make up some, if not all, of the families in the following orders: Procellariiformes, Sphenisciformes, Pelecaniformes, and Charadriiformes. Many seabirds remain at sea for several consecutive years at a time, without ever seeing land. Breeding is the central purpose for seabirds to visit land. The breeding period is usually extremely protracted in many seabirds and may last over a year in some of the larger albatrosses; this is in stark contrast with passerine birds. Seabirds nest in single or mixed-species colonies of varying densities, mainly on offshore islands devoid of terrestrial predators. However, seabirds exhibit many unusual breeding behaviors during all stages of the reproductive cycle that are not extensively reported outside of the primary scientific literature.
Haul Round Island is a 6 ha island in the Arafura Sea, lying close to the north central coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It consists mainly of sand with a few rocks and nearby patches of mangroves. It is close to the town of Maningrida. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it has one of the largest seabird colonies in the Northern Territory.
Seagull Island is a 58 ha linear sand island, about 2.5 km long, lying 4 km off Cape Van Diemen on the north-west coast of Melville Island, in the Tiwi Island group, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is an important breeding site for seabirds.
The fauna of the United States Virgin Islands consists of 144 species of birds, 22 species of mammals, 302 species of fish and 7 species of amphibians. The wildlife of the U.S.V.I. includes numerous endemic species of tropical birds, fish, and land reptiles as well as sea mammals. The only endemic land mammals are six species of native bats: the greater bulldog bat, Antillean fruit-eating bat, red fruit bat, Brazilian free-tailed bat, velvety free-tailed bat and the Jamaican fruit bat. Some of the nonnative land mammals roaming the islands are the white-tailed deer, small Asian mongoose, goats, feral donkeys, rats, mice, sheep, hogs, dogs and cats.