Starbuck Island is in the sea.
It is a small, dry place. Many birds live there.
The island is part of Kiribati. No people live on it now. Can you see the birds from space?
Starbuck Island is in the Pacific Ocean.
It is part of a place called Kiribati. The island is very low and dry.
There is no fresh water to drink there. Small plants and grasses grow on the land. Many birds live on the island. Some say there are millions of birds! It is a safe place for them now.
Starbuck Island sits in the central Pacific Ocean.
It is part of the Line Islands in Kiribati. This island is very low and dry. The highest point is only about 5 meters tall.
Most of the land is made of coral limestone. There is no fresh water to drink here. On the east side, there are salty lagoons. These lagoons can sometimes dry up. They can turn into thick, salty mud.
Not many plants grow on the island. You might see small bushes, grasses, or a few palm trees. Many animals call this place home. A huge number of sooty terns live there. Some say there are up to six million birds! You can also find green turtles and many other seabirds.
In the past, people came to the island to mine guano. Guano is a type of bird droppings used for fertilizer. People worked there between 1870 and 1893. Today, no people live on the island. It is now a wildlife sanctuary to keep the animals safe.
Starbuck Island is a small coral island in the central Pacific Ocean.
It sits within the Line Islands and belongs to the country of Kiribati. The island is very low and looks quite bare from above.
Its land is made of coral limestone. There is no fresh water for people to drink here. The island is one of the driest places in its group. Most of the land is very dry and flat. The highest point on the island is only about 5 meters.
Nature has a very strong hold on this place. The island has very little greenery. You might see small grasses or stunted bushes. A few palm trees grow near the center.
Most of the life comes from the birds. Huge colonies of sooty terns live on the island. Some counts say there are up to six million birds. You can also find green turtles and other seabirds here. There are also rats and feral cats on the land. On the east side, there are salty lagoons. These can turn into thick mud that is hard to walk in.
People first saw the island a long time ago. A captain named James Henderson sighted it in 1819. He was sailing for the East India Company. Later, Captain Obed Starbuck saw the island in 1823. His cousin, Valentine Starbuck, was the first non-Pacific Islander to land there.
In 1825, Captain The 7th Lord Byron charted the island. He was on a British warship. He was helping to return Hawaiian royals to their home. This helped people know exactly where the island was located.
History shows that people used the island for work. Between 1870 and 1893, people mined phosphate there. This is a material found in guano, which is bird droppings.
The United States once claimed the island. Later, Britain took control of the area. The island was part of a British colony for a long time. In 1979, Kiribati became an independent nation. Now, the island is part of the Starbuck Island Wildlife Sanctuary. This helps keep the birds and turtles safe.
Life on the island has been difficult for many. The reefs around the island are very dangerous. Many ships have crashed against the coral over the years.
In 1870, the ship Euryale wrecked there. The crew had to stay on the island for 35 days. In 1896, the ship Seladon also hit the reef. That crew drifted in lifeboats for 30 days. They eventually landed on another island called Niulakita. Today, the island remains uninhabited and wild. It is a special place for nature to thrive.
Starbuck Island, also known as Volunteer Island, is an uninhabited coral island. It is located in the central Pacific Ocean. This island is part of the Line Islands within the nation of Kiribati.
The island is a low, dry landform made of coral limestone. It is one of the driest atolls in the Line Island group. The island has a very low profile. Its highest point reaches only about 5 meters above the sea.
The geography of the island is shaped by its coral structure. A steep beach surrounds the land. This beach is backed by a bank of large coral fragments. On the eastern side, several hypersaline lagoons form. These are lagoons with very high salt content. These lagoons occasionally dry up completely. They can be dangerous to approach because of the thick, salty mud. One worker during the guano-mining era once sank up to his neck in this mud. There is no freshwater available on the island. The annual rainfall averages only about 1,100 millimeters.
Vegetation on Starbuck Island is very limited due to the dry conditions. You will mostly find stunted Sida fallax scrub. There are also low herbs, grasses, and bunch grass. A few Cordia subcordata bushes grow there as well. Some photos show a few palm trees near the island's center. Despite the sparse plants, the island supports massive amounts of wildlife. It hosts a huge colony of sooty terns. Estimates for these birds range from 1.5 million pairs to as many as six million birds. Other animals include green turtles and fifteen other species of seabirds. Polynesian rats and feral cats also live on the island.
Human discovery of the island began in the early 19th century. Captain James Henderson first sighted the island in 1819. He was a merchant captain for the East India Company. He was sailing from South America to Calcutta, India. Henry Evans Maude estimated the sighting occurred in early February 1819. In September 1823, Captain Obed Starbuck of the whaler Hero sighted the island. His cousin, Valentine Starbuck, visited the island on December 12, 1823. Valentine Starbuck was the first non-Pacific Islander known to have set foot there.
The island was formally charted in 1825 by Captain The 7th Lord Byron. He commanded the British warship HMS Blonde. He was returning to London after a mission to Honolulu. He was helping to repatriate the remains of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu of Hawaii. These royals had died of measles during their trip to England. Byron also charted the nearby islands of Mauke and Malden. The island's history involves different controlling powers. The United States claimed it under the 1856 Guano Islands Act. However, Britain took control in 1866 under Commodore Swinburn.
Economic activity occurred on the island through phosphate mining. This mining took place between 1870 and 1893. The phosphate came from guano, which is accumulated bird droppings. Starbuck Island was once part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. In 1979, Kiribati gained independence. In that same year, the Treaty of Tarawa was signed. This treaty formally vacated the American claims to the atoll.
The island's reefs are very dangerous for maritime travel. Many ships have been wrecked on the reefs in the late 19th century. In March 1870, the French transport Euryale wrecked there. The crew was marooned on the atoll for 35 days. The captain, Albert des Portes, later became a contre-admiral. His experience helped him chart the island's correct location. In August 1896, the Norwegian ship Seladon also wrecked against the barrier. The crew drifted in lifeboats for 30 days. They eventually reached Niulakita in Tuvalu and lived with natives for 10 months before rescue.
Today, Starbuck Island serves a vital role in environmental protection. It is designated as the Starbuck Island Wildlife Sanctuary. This status helps protect the massive seabird populations. In 2014, the Kiribati government took further steps to protect the area. They established a 12-nautical-mile fishing exclusion zone. This zone covers Starbuck and several other southern Line Islands. These include Caroline, Flint, Vostok, and Malden. These measures help preserve the delicate ecosystem of the central Pacific.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (3)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🔬 Go deeper
More advanced topics to explore
🪜 Step back
Simpler topics to build understanding
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.