Data Zone
Country/territory: Antarctica
IBA criteria met: A4ii (2015)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 351 ha
Site description (2015 baseline)
Cape Colbeck lies at the northwestern extremity of the Edward VII Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land, at the entrance to Bartlett Inlet. The peninsula is largely ice-covered, apart from nunataks in the Alexandra and Rockefeller mountain ranges.
The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) colony that breeds on fast ice near the eastern coast of Cape Colbeck, and is entirely marine.
There are no research stations nearby. The closest permanent stations are Scott Base (NZL) and McMurdo Station (USA), ~835 km to the southwest in the southern Ross Sea.
Key biodiversity
The population of Emperor Penguins at Cape Colbeck was estimated from satellite imagery as comprising ~13 501 adults in 2005 and 12 585 adults in 2006, although high error surrounded these estimates (Barber-Meyer et al. 2007). In view of the uncertainty, these authors more conservatively predicted that the colony comprised “>5000 adults” in each of those years. Analysis of a satellite image acquired 13 Oct 2009 (Fretwell et al. 2012) indicated that approximately 11 438 Emperor Penguins were present at the colony. No other birds are known to breed in the area.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Cape Colbeck (Antarctica). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/cape-colbeck-iba-antarctica on 23/11/2024.