Booby Pond Nature Reserve is a protected wetland on

Little Cayman Little Cayman is one of three Islands that make up the Cayman Islands. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, approximately 60 miles (96 km) northeast of East End, Grand Cayman and five miles (8 km) west of West End, Cayman Brac. Little C ...

, one of the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

, a

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Br ...

in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexic ...

Description

The reserve lies on the south coast of Little Cayman, near the western end of the island. It comprises a 43 ha seasonally flooded hypersaline lagoon with a fringe of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s and a strip of dry forest on its northern side. The forest is dominated by ''

Bursera simaruba ''Bursera simaruba'', commonly known as gumbo-limbo, copperwood, chaca, West Indian birch, naked Indian, and turpentine tree, is a tree species in the family Burseraceae, native to the Neotropics, from South Florida to Mexico and the Caribbean t ...

'', ''

Canella winterana ''Canella'' is a monospecific genus containing the species ''Canella winterana'', a tree native to the Caribbean from the Florida Keys to Barbados. Its bark is used as a spice similar to cinnamon, giving rise to the common names cinnamon bark ...

'', '' Coccothrinax procterii'', '' Ficus aurea'', '' Guipera discolour'', '' Myrcianthus fragrans'' and ''

Plumeria obtusa ''Plumeria obtusa'', the Singapore graveyard flower, is a species of the genus ''Plumeria'' (Apocynaceae). It is native to the West Indies (including the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles), southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Florida. but wide ...

'', while the mangroves are intermixed with '' Thespesia populnea'' and ''

Cordia sebestena ''Cordia sebestena'' is a shrubby tree in the borage family, Boraginaceae, native to the American tropics. It ranges from southern Florida in the United States and the Bahamas, southwards throughout Central America and the Greater Antilles. Co ...

'' var. ''caymanensis''.

Birds

The site has been identified 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 ...

as a 136 ha

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 Inte ...

(IBA) because it supports populations of

West Indian whistling duck The West Indian whistling duck (''Dendrocygna arborea'') is a whistling duck that breeds in the Caribbean. Alternative names are black-billed whistling duck and Cuban whistling duck. Distribution The West Indian whistling duck is widely scatter ...

s (with 20 breeding pairs), magnificent frigatebirds (with up to 200 breeding pairs),

red-footed boobies The red-footed booby (''Sula sula'') is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are f ...

(with up to 20,000 individuals), white-crowned pigeons,

Caribbean elaenia The Caribbean elaenia (''Elaenia martinica'') is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae found in the West Indies and parts of Central America. Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest, subtropical or tropical ...

s and vitelline warblers. Much of the site is also recognised as a wetland of international importance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It ...

References

Little Cayman Important Bird Areas of the Cayman Islands Ramsar sites in the Cayman Islands Saline lakes of North America Seabird colonies {{Caymans-geo-stub