Editing Houtman Abrolhos (section)

===Birds===
[[File:Terns, Pelsaert Island.jpg|thumb|[[Tern]]s, [[Pelsaert Island]], 1895]]

The Houtman Abrolhos is home to around 100 species of bird; for a complete list, see [[list of birds of the Houtman Abrolhos]]. Six species are land birds, and three are shore birds. The remainder, the vast majority, are [[seabird]]s. Most seabird species have a tropical distribution, but some occur in both tropical and warm-temperate seas, and a small number are warm-temperate only.<ref name="Storr 1986">{{cite journal | author1 = Storr, G. M. | author2 =  Johnstone, R. E.  | author3 =  Griffin, P. | year = 1986 | title = Birds of the Houtman Abholhos, Western Australia | journal = Records of the Western Australian Museum | issue = Supplement No. 24}}</ref>

When numbers of individuals are taken into account, the tropical birds overwhelmingly dominate. The islands are one of the most important breeding sites for tropical seabirds in Australia and have been identified by [[BirdLife International]] as an [[Important Bird Area]] (IBA).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.birdata.com.au/iba.vm |title=IBA: Houtman Abrolhos |access-date=2011-07-08 |work=Birdata |publisher=Birds Australia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706102341/http://www.birdata.com.au/iba.vm |archive-date=6 July 2011 }}</ref> They contain by far the largest colonies of [[wedge-tailed shearwater]] in the eastern Indian Ocean, with over a million breeding pairs recorded there in 1994.<ref name="Fuller 1994">{{cite journal |author1=Fuller, P. J. |author2=Burbidge, A. A. |author3=Owens, R. | year = 1994 | title = Breeding seabirds of the Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia | journal = [[Corella (journal)|Corella]] | volume = 18 | issue = 4 | pages = 97–113}}</ref> They also contain Western Australia's only breeding [[seabird colony|colonies]] of the [[lesser noddy]], and the largest colonies in Western Australia of the [[little shearwater]], [[white-faced storm petrel]], [[common noddy]], [[Caspian tern]], [[crested tern]], [[roseate tern]] and [[fairy tern]]. In addition, they contain important breeding areas for the [[Pacific reef heron]], [[Pacific gull]], [[bridled tern]], [[white-bellied sea eagle]] and [[osprey]].<ref name="Storr 1986"/><ref name="Fisheries 2003"/>

There are two subspecies of bird endemic to the islands. The [[Abrolhos painted button-quail]] occurs only on five islands in the Wallabi Group, and is protected as rare under the ''[[Wildlife Conservation Act 1950]]''. Also gazetted as rare, the Australasian subspecies of the lesser noddy, ''Anous tenuirostris melanops'', breeds only on [[Wooded Island]], [[Morley Island]] and [[Pelsaert Island]].<ref name="Fisheries 2003"/>