The Mentawai Islands lie off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Sumatera Barat, and include the islands of Siberut, Sipura, and North and South Pagai (see map, p. 488). The natural vegetation is tropical lowland rain forest (Whitmore 1984). The islands support two restricted-range species, the threatened Silvery Wood-pigeon Columba argentina (classified as Vulnerable; see Secondary Area s101) and Mentawai Scops-owl Otus mentawi. The latter is confined to the Mentawai Islands, where its habitat is unknown (van Marle and Voous 1988), but is presumably forest. The Mentawai Islands have 11 endemic species of mammals (Whitten et al. 1987b), a remarkably high number considering the relatively low level of endemism in birds.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Mentawai Islands. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/405 on 22/11/2024.