Important Bird Areas in Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland & South Orkney Islands FINAL REPORT Important Bird Areas in Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula South Shetland Islands South Orkney Islands FINAL REPORT Important Bird Areas in Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula South Shetland Islands South Orkney Islands FINAL REPORT Harris, C.M., Carr, R., Lorenz, K. & Jones, S August 2011 Important Bird Areas in Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland & South Orkney Islands FINAL REPORT Citation Harris, C.M., Carr, R., Lorenz, K. & Jones, S. 2011. Important Bird Areas in Antarctica: Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands – Final Report. Prepared for BirdLife International and the Polar Regions Unit of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Environmental Research & Assessment Ltd., Cambridge. X:\Projects\10130-Important Bird Areas\Output\Final 2 26/08/2011 Report\1 IBA Antarctic Peninsula – TOC.doc Important Bird Areas in Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland & South Orkney Islands FINAL REPORT Table of Contents Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Preface............................................................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Analysis to inform IBA project for BirdLife International and the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Preface............................................................................................................................................................. 10 Important Bird Areas in the Antarctic ............................................................................................................... 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 11 Definition of IBA selection criteria ............................................................................................................... 12 PART I: Grid-analysis to derive Antarctic IBAs ............................................................................................... 14 Objectives ................................................................................................................................................... 14 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 15 Results ........................................................................................................................................................ 16 Analysis of IBAs for Individual Bird Species ............................................................................................... 17 For individual points .................................................................................................................................... 17 For a grid cell size of 1km2 ......................................................................................................................... 18 For a grid cell size of 2km2 ......................................................................................................................... 19 For a grid cell size of 5km2 ......................................................................................................................... 20 For a grid cell size of 10km2 ....................................................................................................................... 21 Analysis of IBAs derived from concentrations of seabirds ......................................................................... 22 PART II: IBAs derived from a review of bird species census data .................................................................. 23 Objectives ................................................................................................................................................... 23 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 23 Results ........................................................................................................................................................ 23 PART III: Confirmed and Potential IBAs .......................................................................................................... 24 Objectives ................................................................................................................................................... 24 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 24 Results ........................................................................................................................................................ 24 Confirmed IBAs .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Antarctic Peninsula ..................................................................................................................................... 25 South Shetland Islands ............................................................................................................................... 28 South Orkney Islands ................................................................................................................................. 29 Potential IBAs ............................................................................................................................................. 30 Antarctic Peninsula ..................................................................................................................................... 30 South Shetland Islands ............................................................................................................................... 34 South Orkney Islands ................................................................................................................................. 39 Discussion .................................................................................................................................................. 42 Grid analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 42 Potential and confirmed IBAs ..................................................................................................................... 42 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 44 References ...................................................................................................................................................... 45 Annex A: List of grid-derived IBAs based on criteria A1, A4i and A4ii ............................................................ 47 Annex B: List of grid-derived IBAs based on criterion A4iiii ............................................................................ 51 Annex C: List of IBA sites proposed for removal from the BirdLife / SCAR IBA site list ................................. 55 Annex D: Adjustments to grid-derived IBA list based on updates to bird species data published since 2007 56 Annex E: IBAs identified from a review of census data for an additional 12 bird species ............................... 58 Defining Model Bird Foraging Areas ........................................................................................................... 64 Preface............................................................................................................................................................. 65 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 66 Objective .......................................................................................................................................................... 66 Methods ........................................................................................................................................................... 66 X:\Projects\10130-Important Bird Areas\Output\Final 3 26/08/2011 Report\1 IBA Antarctic Peninsula – TOC.doc Important Bird Areas in Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland & South Orkney Islands FINAL REPORT Results ............................................................................................................................................................. 69 Discussion ....................................................................................................................................................... 71 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 72 Final