Stewart Buttress is a rock bluff, 1,005 m high, 3.7 km south of Maro Cliffs in the

Theron Mountains The Theron Mountains () are a group of mountains, extending in a NE-SW direction for and rising , on the eastern side of the Filchner Ice Shelf. They were first seen from the air in 1956 by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition The Co ...

. First mapped by

Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South ...

(1956–57) and named for Reginald H.A. Stewart, meteorologist with the advance party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1955–56.

Important Bird Area

Stewart Buttress is part of the 665 ha Coalseam Cliffs and Mount Faraway

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), designated as such 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 ...

because it supports a colony of about 10,000 breeding pairs of

Antarctic petrel The Antarctic petrel (''Thalassoica antarctica'') is a boldly marked dark brown and white petrel, found in Antarctica, most commonly in the Ross and Weddell Seas. They eat Antarctic krill, fish, and small squid. They feed while swimming but can ...

s. The birds nest in a scree-filled hollow between two 60 m high

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

cliffs. Other birds recorded as breeding in the vicinity include

snow petrel The snow petrel (''Pagodroma nivea'') is the only member of the genus ''Pagodroma.'' It is one of only three birds that have been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, which has the most s ...

s and

south polar skua The south polar skua (''Stercorarius maccormicki'') is a large seabird in the skua family, Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick's skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specime ...

References

External links

* Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Seabird colonies Cliffs of Coats Land {{CoatsLand-geo-stub