Counts of breeding seabirds and herons at Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island off the Kimberley coast, Australia (1949-2014)

Ashmore Reef is situated on the edge of Sahul Shelf, off the Kimberley coast, Australia. Surveys in 2010 indicate the three small islands within Ashmore Reef support approximately 100,000 breeding seabirds of 16 species and four heron species on an annual basis. That such a diversity and abundance of tropical seabirds utilize a total land area of just 55 ha for breeding purposes is exceptional in an international context Cartier Island and the surrounding reef is an isolated Australian Territory situated in the Timor Sea. This dataset summarises all known ornithological records from the Island and detail the results of twice-annual bird surveys conducted within the Cartier Island Australian Marine Park between 2010 and 2014. See cited papers for data and additional observations.