Christmas Island is one of the world's truly spectacular tropical seabird rookeries. It's not just the number and variety of seabirds or their magnificent splendour that make the island so remarkable, but also their sheer visibility.
Around 80,000 seabirds nest here annually, with 23 breeding or resident species. Birds can be seen and heard everywhere on the island, at just about any time of the day. With just a little effort, birdwatchers can easily tick off a full list of residents in a busy week or a more relaxed fortnight. However, the elusive Christmas Island hawk owl keeps many coming back.
More than 100 vagrant and migratory bird species have been recorded here, including eight breeding seabird species and one subspecies. The most numerous is the wide-ranging red-footed booby, which nests in colonies in trees in many parts of the coastal shore terraces. You may see the endangered Christmas Island frigatebird soaring above Settlement — it's the world's rarest frigatebird and nests only on the island. The golden form of the white-tailed tropic bird is an endemic subspecies unique to Christmas Island. Known locally as the golden bosun bird, this stunning bird is graceful in flight and has been adopted as the island's fauna emblem.
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