Current view: Text account
Site description (2008 baseline):
Site location and context
The IBA consist of Faure and Pelican Islands and associated mudflats, in south-east Shark Bay. Faure is a 5816 ha island surrounded by intertidal flats, shallow lagoons and mangals, about 15 km east of Monkey Mia. Pelican Island is a small island (about 5 ha) east of Faure Island in south-east Shark Bay. The surrounding shallow seas of Shark Bay have rich seagrass beds. Shark Bay has a semi-arid to arid climate with summer minimum and maximum temperatures averaging between 20-35 Celsius and winter temperatures between 10-20 Celsius. Over the past ten years, rainfall on Faure Island has averaged 222 mm. With improved data, this IBA could be extended to include Pied Cormorant feeding waters, nesting islands of Fairy Terns (which are mobile and poorly-known but they have bred on Peron Peninsula), and mudflats along the north-east of Shark Bay (which probably support significant numbers of Grey-tailed Tattlers). The whole area is in Shark Bay World Heritage Area, and the seas are part of the Shark Bay Marine Park.
Together with the Quoin Bluff & Freycinet Island IBA, this IBA is important for Pied Cormorants, with about 1300 nests in 1997, and 'several thousand' nesting in 1974 and 1978 at Pelican Island (Burbidge and Fuller 2000) and 2081 non-breeders around Faure Island in 2008 (Mather and Abbotts 2008). A regionally-significant colony of Australian Pelicans nests on Pelican Island with 92 nests in 1997. A total of 8442 shorebirds were counted at Faure Island in 2008 (Mather and Abbotts 2008), 1165 around Pelican in 2008 (B. Rutherford in litt. 2008) and, 5927 around Faure and 3182 around Pelican in 1987 (Jaensch and Vervest 1990). The one comprehensive waterbird survey of Shark Bay, in October 1987, counted 27,900-37,400 birds of which 54% were shorebirds, including 313 Eastern Curlew and 3623 Banded Stilt [mostly at Useless Loop saltworks (Jaensch and Vervest 1990). 15 species of 'sea' birds have been recorded breeding on 42 islands and islets in Shark Bay: Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Australian Pelican, Pied Cormorant, Silver Gull, Pacific Gull, Caspian Tern, Crested Tern, Lesser Crested Tern, Roseate Tern, Bridled Tern and Fairy Tern, and the sea-side species: Eastern Reef Egret, Osprey, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Pied Oystercatcher and Sooty Oystercatcher (Burbidge and Fuller 2000). The restricted-range Rock Parrot and the arid-biome-restricted Chiming Wedgebill have been recorded on Faure but neither were seen in the 2008 surveys (Mather and Abbotts 2008). Australian Yellow White-eye are frequently encountered in mangroves (S. Mather in litt. 2008).
Non-bird biodiversity: Since cats were eradicated from Faure island, AWC has introduced Burrowing Bettong (Boodie), Shark Bay Mouse, Banded Hare-wallaby and Western Barred Bandicoot.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Investigate impact of human disturbance and other threats.
The IBA overlaps with Shark Bay Marine Park and Freycinet, Double Islands etc. Nature Reserve. Faure Island is a private Australian Wildlife Conservancy reserve.
Western Australia State Government with Faure managed by Australian Wildlife Conservancy and Pelican by WA DEC.
Site access / Land-owner requests
Access to Faure Island is through Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Access to Pelican Island is through DEC.
Andrew Burbidge, Sue Mather and Bill Rutherford kindly provided data and comments.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Faure and Pelican Islands (Shark Bay) (Australia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/faure-and-pelican-islands-(shark-bay)-iba-australia on 23/11/2024.
