• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site summary
Cape Melville is a low-lying, ice-free headland at the eastern extremity of King George Island. The original IBA qualified on the basis of the concentration of seabirds present (in particular Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) however now qualifies based on the large numbers of the bransfieldensis population of Imperial Shag (Leucocarbo atriceps) present at the site. This area does not include the entire ice-free area of the Melville Peninsula, and excludes the Cape Melville geological formation, as well as the plateau located at an elevation of more than 120 m. The proposed region covers an area of 23.2 hectares. The former IBA boundary included an area of 344 hectares and two outlying islands from the Ørnen Rocks formation, which Fudala and Bialik (2023)'s survey ruled out the potential for penguin or Imperial shag nests.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the authors of Fudala and Bialik (2023) for reaching out to us following their work here and highlighting the new found importance of this site for sea birds.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Cape Melville, King George Island (Antarctica). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/cape-melville-king-george-island-iba-antarctica on 23/12/2024.