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The current state of affairs of the Hurghada Archipelago IBA.

It is high season for the breeding birds on the northern islands of the red sea, now it is about time to use all the built-up fat from eating the baitfish and to invest in mating rituals, nesting materials collection and hopefully offspring-rearing.

 

Bridled Terns off Giftun Island.

Sooty Gull off Tawila Island.

 

The Northern Islands of the Red Sea are considered as a safe refuge to many species of seabirds as well as sea turtles, an IBA (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas) recognized by Birdlife International as “Hurghada Archipelago”. Many birds invest in feeding and stocking up on nutrients all year around for a greater cause to pass their genes to an offspring, thus outliving their current life through another generation of younger copies, a biological endeavour we all like to perfect someday. 

A cotillion of Terns in Magawish Island.

A lone Brown Bobby off Giftun.

The islands were considered a haven to birds, turtles, plants, and lizards, but anthropogenic pressures and the allotments for recreational activities are currently undermining the nesting populations of the formerly mentioned cohabitants, not only human activities but also human-related problems such as rat infestation, namely the Norway Rat, Rattus norvegicus, a culprit to the dwindling numbers of many islands’ inhabitants globally and a true menace to the Egyptian islands’ biodiversity.  

 

Although, the pressures that face biodiversity in a global sense are dire, but one can always be the help and not the problem. Birds, turtles, skinks and even crabs have the right to live and to reproduce, so whenever on the islands enjoying what the Red Sea has to offer, pretty please Live and Let Live.