Ilhéu de Cima is an uninhabited island of

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

. It is part of the

Ilhéus do Rombo The Ilhéus do Rombo, also known as the Ilhéus Secos ( Portuguese for "Dry Islets", because of their aridity and paucity of vegetation), are a group of small, uninhabited islands in the Cape Verde archipelago, lying off the coast of north-west A ...

islet group, located east of

Ilhéu Grande Ilhéu Grande is an uninhabited island of Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic isla ...

, the other main islet of the group, and northeast of the island Brava. They are administratively a part of the Brava municipality. Surrounding islets include Ilhéu Luiz Carneiro, Ilhéu Sapado, and Ilhéu do Rei. The island is part of the integral nature reserve ''Ilhéus do Rombo'', famous for its seabird colonies. The southern part of the islet is the highest, culminating at . This is where the Ilhéu de Cima Lighthouse is situated, the only building on the island. The islet was mentioned as "Ghuay" in the 1747 map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin. Notable endemic fauna found on the island include the Iago sparrow. In the mid-1950s, W. R. P. Bourne observed females remaining in flocks while males began to take up locations on rocky slopes from which they could sing. A species of

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

'' Esperiopsis cimensis'' was found in the deep waters surrounding the islet.van Soest, Rob W. M., Elly J. Beglinger & Nicole J. De Voogd, 2012: Sponges of the family Esperiopsidae (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida) from northwest Africa. European journal of taxonomy, 18: 1–21.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cima Ilheu Uninhabited islands of Cape Verde Protected areas of Cape Verde Brava Municipality

See also

References