The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its ca ...

. It is third most populous island after Malaita and

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...

, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020. The island is located east of

and south of Malaita. The largest and capital city is Kirakira.

History

The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Makira was by the Spanish expedition of

Álvaro de Mendaña Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

in June 1568. More precisely the sighting and also landing in San Cristobal was due to a local voyage that set out from

in a small boat, in the accounts the brigantine ''Santiago'', commanded by Alférez

Hernando Enriquez Hernando is a common Spanish given name, equivalent to Fernando and the English Ferdinand. It may refer to: Places ;Canada * Hernando Island, British Columbia ;United States * Hernando, Florida * Hernando County, Florida * Hernando, Mississipp ...

and having Hernán Gallego as pilot. They charted it as ''San Cristóbal''.Brand, Donald D. ''The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations'' The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.133.

Education

The

Stuyvenberg Rural Training Centre The Stuyvenberg Rural Training Centre (abbreviated "Stuyvenberg RTC") is a rural boarding centre of vocational education by the Society of Mary, located on the north coast of eastern Makira in Solomon Islands. It aims to provide skills to stand ...

is a rural

boarding Boarding may refer to: *Boarding, used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals as in a: ** Boarding house **Boarding school *Boarding (horses) (also known as a livery yard, livery stable, or boarding stable), is a stable where ho ...

centre of vocational education by the Society of Mary, located on the north coast of eastern Makira.

Environment

A 182,550 ha tract of largely forested land encompassing the eastern part of the island has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports populations of several threatened or

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

bird species. The site extends from the rocky cliffs of the coast to the island's central Bauro Highlands, including the catchments of the Warihito and Raro Rivers, reaching an altitude of 1,200 m, and consisting largely of tropical rainforest. The landscape is rugged, with steep-sided valleys, many streams and waterfalls, and small perched floodplains. Potential threats to the environment are logging,

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

and human population growth.

Birds

Significant birds include Melanesian scrubfowl,

yellow-legged pigeon The yellow-legged pigeon (''Columba pallidiceps'') is a bird species in the family Columbidae. It is found in the Bismarck and Solomon archipelagos. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropic ...

s, crested cuckoo-doves, red-knobbed and

chestnut-bellied imperial pigeon The chestnut-bellied imperial pigeon (''Ducula brenchleyi'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the southern Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or ...

s, white-headed fruit doves, Makira boobooks, pied goshawks, Sanford's sea eagles, San Cristobal dwarf kingfishers, Meek's and duchess lorikeets, yellow-bibbed lories,

green pygmy-parrot Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combina ...

Makira honeyeater The Makira honeyeater (''Meliarchus sclateri''), also known as the San Cristobal honeyeater, is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the ...

sooty myzomela The sooty myzomela (''Myzomela tristrami'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the S ...

s, long-tailed trillers,

dusky fantail The Makira fantail or dusky fantail (''Rhipidura tenebrosa'') is a species of bird in the family Rhipiduridae. It is endemic to the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habi ...

Makira flycatcher The Makira flycatcher (''Myiagra cervinicauda'') is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss Habita ...

s, white-collared and

Makira monarch The chestnut-bellied monarch (''Monarcha castaneiventris'') or chestnut-bellied monarch-flycatcher is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to the Solomon Islands. Subspecies Four subspecies are recognized: * ''M. c. castan ...

island leaf-warbler The island leaf warbler (''Phylloscopus poliocephalus'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Phylloscopidae. It is found in an area ranging from the Moluccas to the Solomon Islands. It has 16 subspecies. References island leaf war ...

shade bush warbler The shade bush warbler or shade warbler (''Horornis parens'') is a species of bird in the family Cettiidae Cettiidae is a newly validated family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler "wastebin ...

grey-throated white-eye The grey-throated white-eye (''Zosterops rendovae'') is a species of bird. Its family, the Zosteropidae, is probably not valid and belongs in the Timaliidae instead. It is also known as ''Zosterops ugiensis'' because ''Z. rendovae'' has often be ...

Makira starling The Makira starling (''Aplonis dichroa''), also known as the San Cristobal starling, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is endemic to the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest ...

s, Makira thrushes and mottled flowerpeckers. The Makira woodhen, or moorhen, has not been seen since 1953; the

thick-billed ground dove The thick-billed ground dove (''Pampusana salamonis'') is an extinct dove species of the family Columbidae. Description This poorly known species is only known from two specimens from 1882 and 1927. The holotype from 1882 can be seen in the Aust ...

has not been recorded since 1927 and is presumed extinct.

Other biota

Five species of restricted-range bats have been recorded, as well as a possibly new species of giant rat ('' Solomys''). There are two species of endemic fig ('' Ficus'').

Notable people

Doreen Kuper Doreen Kuper is an entrepreneur and cultural mediator from the Solomon Islands. She is a former Honorary Consul of Solomon Islands to New Zealand and a former Chair of the Festival of Pacific Arts. Biography Educated at the Melanesian Mission' ...

- former Honorary Consul to New Zealand.

Gallery

File:Kirakira Local Dwellings.JPG, Some of the local houses next to the beach at Kirakira File:Kirakira Beach at Sunset.JPG, A kirakira beach at sunset

References

External links

* {{authority control Islands of the Solomon Islands Important Bird Areas of the Solomon Islands