North Keeling Island (Cocos (Keeling) Islands (to Australia)) IBA | Details

North Keeling Island

Current view: Details

IBA Justification

The site was identified as internationally important for bird conservation in 2009 because it was regularly supporting significant populations of the species listed below, meeting IBA criteria.

Populations meeting IBA criteria ('key species') at the site:

Species	Red List	Season (year/s of estimate)	Size	IBA criteria
Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel	LC	resident (2003)	3,000 breeding pairs	A4ii
Red-footed Booby Sula sula	LC	resident (2003)	30,000 breeding pairs	A4ii
Brown Noddy Anous stolidus	LC	resident (1982)	15,000 individuals	A4i
A4iii Species group - seabirds	n/a	- (-)	10,000 breeding pairs	A4iii

IBA Conservation

Ideally the conservation status of the IBA will have been checked regularly since the site was first identified in 2009. The most recent assessment (2008) is shown below.

IBA conservation status
Year of assessment	State	Pressure	Response
2008	not assessed	high	not assessed
Whole site assessed?	State assessed by	Accuracy of information
yes	unset	good

Pressure (threats to the key species and/or their habitats)
Threat	Timing	Scope	Severity	Result
Climate change and severe weather	likely in long term (beyond 4 years)	whole population/area (>90%)	moderate deterioration (10–30% in 3 generations)	high
Human intrusions and disturbance	happening now	whole population/area (>90%)	no deterioration (<1% over 3 generations)	low
Biological resource use	happening now	some of population/area (10–49%)	no deterioration (<1% over 3 generations)	low

Response (conservation actions taken for the key species and/or their habitats)
Designation	Planning	Action	Result
Not assessed	Not assessed	Not assessed	not assessed

IBA Protection

Year	Protected Area	Designation (management category)	% coverage of IBA
1995	Pulu Keeling	National Park (Commonwealth) (II)	100

Habitats

Habitat	% of IBA	Habitat detail
Forest	40	Lowland evergreen rain forest (tropical)
Marine Coastal/Supratidal	25
Marine Intertidal	25
Grassland	5	Secondary grassland
Shrubland	5	Secondary scrub

Land use

Land use	% of IBA
nature conservation and research	100

Land ownership

Australian Federal Government with management the responsibility of Parks Australia.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: North Keeling Island (Cocos (Keeling) Islands (to Australia)). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/north-keeling-island-iba-cocos-(keeling)-islands-(to-australia) on 22/01/2025.