Bird Island (Tasmania)

Bird Island is an island game reserve, with an area of 43.92 ha, in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group which lies between north-west Tasmania and King Island. It is home to about 5,000 pairs of short-tailed shearwaters, the young of which are harvested annually, and about 3,000 pairs of little penguins.^[1]

For the island in the Bass Strait, see Bird Island (Prime Seal Group).

The island is a breeding site for short-tailed shearwaters, or Tasmanian muttonbirds

Fauna

The island forms part of the Hunter Island Group Important Bird Area.^[2] As well as the shearwaters and penguins, other breeding seabirds and shorebirds include white-faced storm-petrel, Pacific gull, silver gull and sooty oystercatcher. Reptiles include the metallic skink and abundant tiger snakes.^[1]

References

1. Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
2. BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Hunter Island Group. Downloaded from "BirdLife International - conserving the world's birds". Archived from the original on 10 July 2007. Retrieved 2012-09-29. on 2011-07-09.

40°36′S 144°43′E