Pied Imperial-pigeon Ducula bicolor National Aviary 1300px

The Piper Islands National Park is a national park in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It lies 1977 km northwest of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. It comprises four small islands lying on the inner northern

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

off the eastern coast of the

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

in Temple Bay, between

Cape Grenville Cape Grenville (), is a small, east-facing promontory along the Queensland, Australia coast of Cape York Peninsula. It lies between Shelburne Bay to the north and Temple Bay to the south. The nearest significant settlement is Weipa, along the w ...

and Fair Cape.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Piper Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 19/09/2011.

Birds

The islands have 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 i ...

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 they have supported over 1% of the world populations of

pied imperial pigeon The pied imperial pigeon (''Ducula bicolor'') is a relatively large, Piebald, pied species of pigeon. It is found in forest, woodland, mangrove, plantations and scrub in Southeast Asia, ranging from Myanmar and Thailand, throughout Indonesia and ...

s (with up to 4000 nests) and black noddies (up to 7500 nests).

Islands

Baird Island Baird Island is an island in the Piper Islands National Park in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Queensland, Australia, in Temple Bay about 100 km northeast of Kutini-Payamu National Park and Lockhart River and 50 km south of Cape ...

(1 ha) –

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

and shingle

cay A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Grea ...

with

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s (dominated by ''

Rhizophora stylosa ''Rhizophora stylosa'', the spotted mangrove, red mangrove, small stilted mangrove or stilt-root mangrove, is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree in the family Rhizophoraceae. The specific epithet ' is from the Latin meaning 'stylus form', ref ...

'' and ''

Avicennia marina ''Avicennia marina'', commonly known as grey mangrove or white mangrove, is a species of mangrove tree classified in the plant family Acanthaceae (formerly in the Verbenaceae or Avicenniaceae). As with other mangroves, it occurs in the intert ...

'') growing to a canopy height of 5 m * Beesley Island (2.4 ha) – cay with

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es and

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

s, sharing the same reef as Baird Island * Farmer Island (7 ha) – cay with a grass and

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

exterior and a wooded interior dominated by ''

Pisonia grandis ''Pisonia grandis'', the grand devil's-claws, is a species of flowering tree in the ''Bougainvillea'' family, Nyctaginaceae. Description The tree has broad, thin leaves, smooth bark and bears clusters of green sweet-smelling flowers that matur ...

'' forest up to 4 m in height * Fisher Island (3 ha) – coral shingle cay with shrubs and mangroves, sharing the same reef as Fisher Island

References

External links

Piper Islands National Park
- State of Queensland Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing National parks of Far North Queensland Protected areas established in 1989 1989 establishments in Australia Important Bird Areas of Queensland Islands on the Great Barrier Reef Coral Sea Islands Islands of Far North Queensland {{Queensland-national-park-stub

Birds

Islands

See also

References

External links