Vogelinsel (field name)

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Cape booby ( Morus capensis ) on Bird Island , Lamberts Bay, South Africa

Bird Island (Engl. Bird Iceland ) is the main or nickname numerous islands with strikingly high number of bird populations . Some archipelagos also have this name. There are bird islands both in inland waters (lakes, rivers, etc.) and in seas ; on the latter there are predominantly seabird populations.

On the concept of the bird island

Northern gannet ( Morus bassanus ) on Île Bonaventure , Quebec
Little Skellig , Ireland, with the characteristic bird shits (gannets)

The addition to the name always goes back to the large number of birds that once or still exist there today , which use these islands as a retreat, breeding ground or as a resting place on longer migrations . For several islands it can be proven that they got their name from the discoverer or name simply because of the striking population, for numerous other islands - in addition to official place names - the name can also be found as an epithet or only as a general characterization.

The term gains a special meaning in the course of the large-scale guano mining in the 19th century (as fertilizer), where it denotes abundant, profitable occurrences: Many seabirds colonize individual islands and leave other, nearby islands untouched. In fact, the term is also used today in ecology in the sense of an ecosystem category (in connection with guano-induced soil conditions), with (sea) bird island as "island with nests or sleeping places for (sea) birds" and "not -Vogelinsel “ (non-bird island) as an uncolonized island. This is how a standard work describes:

“There are islands with large seabird colonies around the world. Sea bird islands provide nesting and resting places for birds that find their food at sea, leave marine nutrients on land, and physically change these islands. Numerous habitats for endemic and endangered animal and plant species are sea bird islands, which are therefore hotspots of biodiversity with high priority for nature conservation. "

The latter also applies to bird islands in inland waters. Many of the typical bird islands have been depopulated in the last few centuries, for example by rats, snakes and house cats as neophytes .

Examples

The following islands, for example, are named "Bird Island" - or in an analogous way - here partly with their respective characteristic bird species and population (often given as breeding pairs):

Well-known "bird islands" (only as a characterization or, if necessary, a local nickname) are for example Île Bonaventure (Quebec / Canada), Runde (Norway), Little Skellig (Ireland), Trischen (Germany), and many more

Special birds

As a nickname, after the heraldic animal: Kiwi island for New Zealand

See also

literature

  • Christa PH Mulder, Wendy B. Anderson, David R. Towns, Peter J. Bellingham (Eds.): Seabird Islands. Ecology, Invasion, and Restoration . 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-973569-3 ( Book Review , Oxford University Press, oup.com).

Web links

Commons : bird colonies  - islands, capes, etc. a.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ In the sense of: Friends of Maine's Seabird Islands ('Friends of the Seabird Islands Maines'), in the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge
  2. ↑ but not the Sea Bird Island , British Columbia: This is named after a ship, compare : Sea Bird Island (British Columbia)
  3. ↑ A well-known example is the island in the South African Bird Island Nature Reserve , which was abandoned in 2005 by the breeding colony in favor of a neighboring island and - because of its tourist importance - could be repopulated by an attracting measure
  4. ↑ for example in the work of Wendy B. Anderson and Gary A. Polis : Wendy B. Anderson, Gary A. Polis: Nutrient Fluxes from Water to Land: Seabirds Affect Plant Nutrient Status on Gulf of California Islands . In: Oecologia . Vol. 118, No. 3 (1999) . Springer, 1999, p. 324-332 , JSTOR : 4222245 .
  5. ^ " Sea bird islands (those where sea birds nest or roost) ". In: GA Polis, MD Rose, F. Sanchez-Piñero, PT Stabb, WB Anderson: Island Food Webs . In: Ted J. Case, Martin L. Cody, Exequiel Ezcurra (Eds.): A New Island Biogeography of the Sea of ​​Cortes . Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-19-535090-6 , (13.), pp. 369 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - full article 362 ff).
  6. ^ Gary A. Polis, Mary E. Power, Gary R. Huxel: Food Webs at the Landscape Level . University of Chicago Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-226-67325-7 , Allochtonous Inputs and Temporaly Stability - Plant Responses on Nutrient in Wet an Dry Years , pp. 85 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  7. ↑ " Islands with large colonies of seabirds are found throughout the globe. Seabird islands provide nesting and roosting sites for birds that forage at sea, deposit marine nutrients on land, and physically alter these islands. Habitats for numerous endemic and endangered animal and plant species, seabird islands are therefore biodiversity hotspots with high priority for conservation. Quoted from Oxford University Press: Book Review of Ref. Mulder, Anderson, Towns, Bellingham (Eds.): Seabird Islands . 2011. Translation Wikipedia
  8. ↑ Wallnau webcam: Not quiet, but less dangerous ... , wallnau.nabu.de
  9. ↑ Common tern - Sterna hirundo , donauauen.at