Boatswain Bird Island, also spelt Boatswainbird Island, is a small island some off the east coast of Ascension Island in the South

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

with an area of approximately . It is administered from Georgetown on Ascension, which is part of

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name wa ...

, an

overseas territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Boatswain Bird Island should not be confused with the nearby, much smaller, Boatswain Bird Rock, only about in size, located south-east of the island and north-east of the coast of Ascension. The southern coast of the island has an impressive

natural arch A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion ...

Birds

There are thousands of inhabitants on this tiny island, all of which are birds, which give the island its white colour. Among the many

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s nesting there are

boobies A booby is a seabird in the genus ''Sula'', part of the family Sulidae. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (''Morus''), which were formerly included in ''Sula''. Systematics and evolution The genus ''Sula'' was introduced by the Fren ...

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

s, noddies, as well as the

tropicbird Tropicbirds are a family, Phaethontidae, of tropical pelagic seabirds. They are the sole living representatives of the order Phaethontiformes. For many years they were considered part of the Pelecaniformes, but genetics indicates they are most cl ...

s (boatswain birds) for which the island is named. The island is the home of the majority of Ascension's birds due to rats (accidentally introduced by passing ships) and then cats (introduced to catch the rats, as well as pets) eating the birds and their eggs on Ascension. Since the mid-1990s there has been a feral cat eradication program, alongside a rat eradication program, to encourage the birds back to the main island.

Important Bird Area

The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International as a breeding site for seabirds. Birds for which the IBA is significant include Madeiran storm petrels (1,500 breeding pairs),

red-billed tropicbird The red-billed tropicbird (''Phaethon aethereus'') is a tropicbird, one of three closely related species of seabird of tropical oceans. Superficially resembling a tern in appearance, it has mostly white plumage with some black markings on the wi ...

s (500 pairs),

white-tailed tropicbird The white-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon lepturus'') is a tropicbird. It is the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. It is found in the tropical Atlantic, western P ...

s (1,000 pairs),

Ascension frigatebird The Ascension frigatebird (''Fregata aquila'') is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae which breeds on Boatswain Bird Island and Ascension Island in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The Ascension frigatebird is a large lightly built se ...

s (6,000 pairs), masked boobies (1,300 pairs) and black noddies (5,000 pairs).

References

Geography of Ascension Island Uninhabited islands of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Important Bird Areas of Saint Helena Seabird colonies {{Ascension-geo-stub