Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area

The Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area comprise two small islands in the Wellesley Islands group, lying in the south-east of the Gulf of Carpentaria and part of the state of Queensland, Australia. They are important for breeding seabirds.

The islands are an important breeding site for Lesser Frigatebirds

Description

The islands have a collective area of 51 ha and lie about 40 km north-west of Mornington Island, the largest of the Wellesley Group. The climate is monsoonal with a hot wet season from December to April and an extended dry season from May to November. The islands are Aboriginal land owned by the Lardil people. The traditional name of Manowar Island is Delmerriya or Wudma; that of Rocky Island is Kalamburriya.[1]

Birds

The islands have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because they support over 1% of the world populations of brown boobies (up to 12,000 breeding pairs) and lesser frigatebirds (up to 7700 breeding pairs).[2] Large numbers of Australian pelicans and smaller numbers of eastern reef egrets, ospreys and white-bellied sea-eagles also breed on the islands.[1]

References
  1. BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Manowar and Rocky Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 11/08/2011.
  2. "IBA: Manowar and Rocky Islands". Birdata. Birds Australia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2011.


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