Grand Colombier is a small, uninhabited island in the French North American territory of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...
. Only 50 ha in area, it lies 500 m off the north coast of
Saint Pierre Island
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
and rises to an elevation of 150 m. It is steep sided and treeless with rocky outcrops and a gently rolling top. The slopes are vegetated with
grass
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...
es and
fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...
s, while the top of the island is dominated by
crowberry
''Empetrum nigrum'', crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but there ...
. It has been identified as an
Important Bird Area (IBA) by
BirdLife International because it supports a globally significant population of
Leach's storm petrels.
As of 2011, the island supports approximately 200,000 breeding pairs of Leach's storm petrels.
See also
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Geography of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a French overseas collectivity in the Western Hemisphere and the Northern Hemisphere. It consists of an island archipelago, off the coast of Newfoundland, near North America. The collectivity shares a maritime bou ...
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List of Saint Pierre and Miquelon-related topics
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Saint Pierre and Miquelon:
The Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (french: Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon) is an overseas c ...
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Miquelon Island (Northeast Coast) Important Bird Area
References
Islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Important Bird Areas of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Seabird colonies
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