Centre Hills is a forest reserve on the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea. It forms one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs), which encompasses the forest reserve as well as additional habitat for the Montserrat oriole, the territory's endemic, and critically endangered, national bird. [1]
The 1112 ha IBA comprises the largest remnant of Montserrat's native forest. It encompasses the highlands of the northern half of the island from an elevation of 150 m up to the 741 m summit of Katy Hill. The terrain is steep, largely trackless, and riven by the ‘ghauts’, or ravines, that radiate into the islands's northern lowlands. Rainfall increases with altitude, and the vegetation changes from tropical dry forest at the lower elevations, through tropical evergreen forest to elfin forest at the summit. Most of the forest is secondary or regrowth, following historic land clearance for plantation agriculture, and at a variety of successional stages because of damage from frequent hurricanes. Other IBAs on the island are the Northern Forested Ghauts and South Soufriere Hills. [1] The Centre Hills are one of the two extinct volcanoes (with Silver Hills) that preceded the currently active Soufriere Hills. [2] [3]
The IBA was identified as such by BirdLife International because it supports, as well as Montserrat orioles, populations of bridled quail-doves, purple-throated caribs, green-throated caribs, Antillean crested hummingbirds, Caribbean elaenias, scaly-breasted thrashers, pearly-eyed thrashers, brown tremblers, forest thrushes and Lesser Antillean bullfinches. [1]
Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about 16 km (10 mi) long and 11 km (7 mi) wide, with roughly 40 km (25 mi) of coastline. It is nicknamed "The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean" both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants. Montserrat is the only non-fully sovereign full member of the Caribbean Community and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains. Its largest volcano and the country's highest peak, La Soufrière, is active, with the latest episode of volcanic activity having begun in December 2020 and intensifying in April 2021.
Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée, meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain" in French, is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. Its most recent eruption was in 1932.
The Soufrière Hills are an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and continued to erupt through 2010. Its last eruption was in 2013. Its eruptions have rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroying the capital city, Plymouth, and causing widespread evacuations: about two-thirds of the population have left the island. Chances Peak in the Soufrière Hills was the highest summit on Montserrat until the mid-1990s, but it has since been eclipsed by various rising and falling volcanic domes during the recent volcanic activity.
W. H. Bramble Airport, formerly known as Blackburne Airport, was an international airport on the east coast of the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It was named after Montserrat Chief Minister William Henry Bramble.
Green Cay National Wildlife Refuge, encompasses the 6 ha (14 acre) island of Green Cay lying midway between the town of Christiansted and Buck Island Reef National Monument, just north of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands of the Caribbean. It is administered as part of the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife complex. There is a smaller "Green Cay" off the coast of Saint Thomas.
The Montserrat oriole is a medium-sized black-and-yellow icterid.
Fort-de-France Bay is a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Martinique. It is named after Martinique's capital, Fort-de-France, located north of the bay.
Île Tintamarre, also known as Flat Island, is a small island with an area of approximately 0.8 square kilometres (0.3 sq mi). It is located in the Caribbean Sea, about 3 kilometres (2 mi) from the island of Saint Martin, and is administered as part of the French overseas collectivity of Saint Martin. The island has no human occupants, but has been inhabited in the past. Between 1946 and 1950, it was the base for a former airline, Compagnie Aérienne Antillaise, which flew planes from the island's 500-metre (1,600 ft) airstrip.
Chances Peak is a summit of the active complex stratovolcano named Soufrière Hills, the youngest volcanic complex on the island of Montserrat, a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean Sea. It was the highest point on the island until the mid-1990s, when fluctuating volcanic domes during the 1995–1999 Soufrière Hills eruptions eclipsed the peak in height. The Soufriere Hills volcano is on a destructive plate margin, and is part of the Eastern Caribbean Volcanic Arc. This volcanic arc lies on the Caribbean plate, and has formed by subduction of the North American Plate beneath it.
Pic Paradis or Pic du Paradis is the highest point in a chain of hills in the Collectivity of Saint Martin, an overseas collectivity of France on the island of Saint Martin, located in the Caribbean, with an elevation of 424 m (1,391 ft), making it the highest point on the island.
The Bluff is the highest part of the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean Sea. It stands at the eastern end of the island of Cayman Brac and has a maximum elevation of 43 m (141 ft).
Cauls Pond is a wetland in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean Sea. It is one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
Forest Bay Pond is a small wetland in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean Sea. It forms one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
The Northern Forested Ghauts constitute a tract of land on the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea. It forms one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
South Soufriere Hills is a 35 ha patch of forest on the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea. It forms one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
Cas Cay is a fifty-acre (200,000-square-metre) undeveloped island, situated a mile south of Red Hook on the eastern side of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It is under the protection of the Department of Natural Resources. Ferries here depart from Compass Point Marina, right east of Nadir.
The Quill/Boven National Park comprises two separated sections of protected land at opposite ends of the island of Sint Eustatius in the Dutch Caribbean, maintained by the St. Eustatius National Parks Foundation (STENAPA). Both parts of the park have been identified by BirdLife International as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) because they support populations of several threatened or restricted-range bird species.
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