Data Zone
Country/territory: Antarctica
IBA criteria met: A4ii, A4iii (2015)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 415 hectares (4.15 km2)
Site description (2015 baseline)
Coulman Island lies along the Borchgrevink Coast of northern Victoria Land, ~18 km east of the Borchgrevink Glacier Tongue. The island is an elongated basaltic dome covered by a permanent ice cap. Cape Wadworth is the northern-most point of Coulman Island.
The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) colony that breeds on sea ice ~5 km southwest of Cape Wadworth. Breeding extends ~2 km offshore from the northwestern coast of Coulman Island, and the IBA is entirely marine.
The nearest permanent stations are Mario Zucchelli (ITA) and Jang Bogo (KOR) ~220 km to the southwest in Terra Nova Bay.
Key biodiversity
The Coulman Island Emperor Penguin colony is currently the largest known, although the emperor colony at Cape Washington IBA has in some years been comparable, or sometimes of larger, in size. The colony breeds on sea ice up to approximately 1 km from the northwestern Coulman Island coast. The population ranged between ~19 000 and ~35 000 pairs from 1983-2005 (Barber-Meyer et al. 2007, 2008). Analysis of a satellite image acquired 16 Oct 2009 (Fretwell et al. 2012) indicated that 25 298 Emperor Penguins were present at the colony, although image quality was rated Fair.
Information on other bird species at the site is not available.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Cape Wadworth, Coulman Island (Antarctica). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/cape-wadworth-coulman-island-iba-antarctica on 18/12/2024.