Islas Ildefonso are a group of islands in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

. The islands belong to the

Commune of Cabo de Hornos Cabo de Hornos (''Cape Horn'') is a Chilean commune located in the south of Tierra del Fuego archipelago, in Antártica Province, Magallanes Region. The municipality of Cabo de Hornos, located in the town of Puerto Williams, also administers t ...

Antártica Chilena Province Antártica Chilena Province ( es, Provincia Antártica Chilena) is the southernmost and one of four provinces in Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region (XII). The capital is Puerto Williams. The province comprises ...

of Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. They lie west of Isla Hermite, part of

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

, and NNW of

Diego Ramirez Islands Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. Et ...

, but only south of Isla Hoste or to rocks near Isla Hoste.

Description

The islands were named by the Spanish navigator Diego Ramírez de Arellano, who piloted the Garcia de Nodal expedition through the region in 1619. The islands consist of nine stacks, within two groups. They extend on a northwest–southeast axis. The land area measures about . More than 50% of this comprises the large single southern stack, which is long and between wide. The islands are steep and rocky, and covered in

tussac grass ''Poa flabellata'', commonly known as tussac grass or just tussac, is a tussock grass native to southern South America, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and other islands in the South Atlantic. There are also two isolated records from the her ...

Important Bird Area

The islands have 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 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 Inte ...

because they hold large breeding populations of both

southern rockhopper penguin The southern rockhopper penguin group (''Eudyptes chrysocome''), is a species of rockhopper penguin, that is sometimes considered distinct from the northern rockhopper penguin. It occurs in subantarctic waters of the western Pacific and Indian ...

s (86,000 breeding pairs) and

black-browed albatross The black-browed albatross (''Thalassarche melanophris''), also known as the black-browed mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family. T ...

es (47,000 breeding pairs). There are also smaller numbers of

grey-headed albatross The grey-headed albatross (''Thalassarche chrysostoma'') also known as the gray-headed mollymawk, is a large seabird from the albatross family. It has a circumpolar distribution, nesting on isolated islands in the Southern Ocean and feeding at h ...

es. Magellanic penguins,

imperial shag The imperial shag or imperial cormorant (''Leucocarbo atriceps'') is a black and white cormorant native to southern South America, primarily in rocky coastal regions, but locally also at large inland lakes. Some taxonomic authorities, including ...

s and

sooty shearwater The sooty shearwater (''Ardenna grisea'') is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand, it is also known by its Māori name , and as muttonbird, like its relatives the wedge-tailed shearwater (''A. pacificus ...

s present.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Islas Ildefonso. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-15.

References

{{authority control Archipelagoes of Chile Islands of Tierra del Fuego Stacks (geology) Uninhabited islands of Chile Important Bird Areas of Chile Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Important Bird Areas of subantarctic islands Seabird colonies Penguin colonies

Description

Important Bird Area

See also

References