Hjelmsøya is an
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
in
Måsøy Municipality in
Finnmark
Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...
county,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. The island lies west of the islands of
Måsøya and
Magerøya, north of
Havøya and the mainland, and east of
Ingøya. The mountainous island has been uninhabited since 1967. There are connections to the island other than by private boats.
Nature reserves
There are two large nature reserves on the island. The northernmost part of Hjelmsøya has a large
bird cliff called ''Hjelmsøystauren'', which is one of Norway's most important breeding colonies of
guillemots. It has been designated an
Important Bird Area (IBA) 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 i ...
.
The other one is at Sandsfjord, a fjord surrounded by high mountain cliffs.
See also
*
List of islands of Norway
References
Måsøy
Islands of Finnmark
Nature reserves in Norway
Important Bird Areas of Norway
Important Bird Areas of Arctic islands
Seabird colonies
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