The Breeding of Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies on Manana Island, Hawaii

Abstract

Manana or Rabbit Island is a 0.25 km2 volcanic tuff cone situated about 1.3 km off Oahu, Hawaii (Tomich et al. 1968). The island rises to 110 m on the southeast, and contains a central crater vegetated primarily with grasses, wild tobacco, and scattered palms. A remnant of a second crater forms a bench on the windward side of the island, and a sandy beach fringes the leeward side of the island (fig. 1). Four species of sea birds regularly breed on Manana at present: Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata), Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus), Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus), and Bulwer's Petrel (Bulweria ,bulwerii) (Bryan 1935, Richardson and Fisher 1950, Tomich et al. 1968). I know of no first-hand reports on the Manana sea birds before 1934. Munro (1940) was told by an Hawaiian living on Oahu near Manana that few if any sea birds were on Manana about 1900. On 25 August 1934, Bryan (1935) found thousands of Noddies with eggs and young on Manana, but no Sooty Terns. Hatch (1940) reported eggs and young of Noddies on Manana, 17 August 1940. The island was bombed and strafed during World War II (Green 1942) but the effect on the sea birds is not known. Since 1945 the islet