Data Zone
Country/territory: Antarctica
IBA Justification: A4iii (2015)
Area: 68 hectares (0.68 km2)
Site description (2015 baseline)
Warriner Island is the eastern-most of the Donskiye Islands, located ~0.5 km west of Broad Peninsula in the southern part of the Vestfold Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land. It is an ice free island, ~ 1.2 km long and up to 0.7km wide. Its highest point reaches 52 m.
The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony present at the site. The IBA comprises all of Warriner Island.
The nearest permanent station is Davis (AUS), ~4 km to the northeast on Broad Peninsula, Vestfold Hills.
Key biodiversity
Approximately 23 760 pairs of Adélie Penguin were estimated as breeding at Warriner Island using satellite imagery from February 2012 (unpublished data H. Lynch & M. LaRue pers. comm. 2014: CI not available). In 1981/82 the colony size was estimated with 14 782 breeding pairs (Whitehead & Johnstone 1990). The breeding colony is situated on the flatter part of the island along its west coast. Lynch & LaRue (2014) grouped records of Adélie Penguins present on Warriner Island IBA with the unnamed island in Donskiye Islands IBA, Lugg, Magnetic and Turner Islands IBA and Gardner Island IBA and referred to these as ‘Vestfold South'.
No other birds are known to breed in the area.
Non-bird biodiversity: Southern Elephant Seals (Mirounga leonina) haul out in the vicinity at the western end of Broad Peninsula (Australian Antarctic Data Centre 2012).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Warriner Island, Donskiye Islands (Antarctica). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/warriner-island-donskiye-islands-iba-antarctica on 13/01/2025.