Cape Melville, is a low-lying, ice-free

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

at the eastern end of King George Island in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Some 388 ha of the site has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports a large breeding colony of about 16,000 pairs of chinstrap penguins. 0.5 nautical miles (1 km) south of Cape Melville is a rock named

Livonia Rock Livonia Rock () is a rock lying south of Cape Melville, the eastern extremity of King George Island, in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1960 for the sealing vessel ''Livonia'' fro ...

References

Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Penguin colonies Melville {{KingGeorgeIslandAQ-geo-stub