Boatswain Bird Island


Boatswain Bird Island, also spelt Boatswainbird Island, is a small island some off the east coast of Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean with an area of approximately. It is administered from Georgetown on Ascension, which is part of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. Boatswain Bird Island should not be confused with the nearby, much smaller, Boatswain Bird Rock, only about in size, located south-east of the island and north-east of the coast of Ascension. The southern coast of the island has an impressive natural arch.

Birds

There are thousands of inhabitants on this tiny island, all of which are birds, which give the island its white colour. Among the many seabirds nesting there are boobies, petrels, noddies, as well as the tropicbirds for which the island is named.
The island is the home of the majority of Ascension's birds due to rats and then cats eating the birds and their eggs on Ascension. Since the mid-1990s there has been a feral cat eradication program, alongside a rat eradication program, to encourage the birds back to the main island.

Important Bird Area

The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International as a breeding site for seabirds. Birds for which the IBA is significant include Madeiran storm petrels, red-billed tropicbirds, white-tailed tropicbirds, Ascension frigatebirds, masked boobies and black noddies.