Mutton Bird Island is an irregularly shaped unpopulated
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
located close to the
south-western coast of
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, Australia. Situated some south of where the
mouth of
Port Davey
Port Davey is an oceanic inlet located in the south west region of Tasmania, Australia.
Port Davey was named in honour of Thomas Davey, a former Governor of Tasmania. Port Davey is contained within the Port Davey/Bathurst Harbour Marine Natu ...
meets the
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
, the is the largest of the eight islands that comprise the Mutton Bird Islands Group. The Mutton Bird Island is part of the
Southwest National Park
Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a part of a chain of ...
and the
Tasmanian Wilderness
The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, abbreviated to TWWHA, is a World Heritage Site in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering , or almost 25% of Tasmania. It is also one of the last ex ...
World Heritage Site.
The highest point of Mutton Bird Island is Australian Height Datum, above sea level.
Fauna
The island is part of the Port Davey Islands Important Bird Area, so identified by BirdLife International because of its importance for breeding seabirds.
Recorded breeding seabird and wader species are the little penguin (3,000 pairs), short-tailed shearwater, (530,000 pairs), fairy prion (2,500 pairs), Pacific gull, silver gull and sooty oystercatcher. Reptiles present are the metallic skink and Tasmanian tree skink.
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]
See also
* List of islands of Tasmania
References
{{Islands of Tasmania , state=autocollapse
Islands of South West Tasmania