Birds of Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

The Australian territories of Heard and McDonald Islands are 2,500 miles southwest of Perth, Australia, in the southern Indian Ocean. The next stop south is the Amery Ice Shelf. Heard, a sizable ice-covered hunk 27 miles long and 3 miles wide, and the McDonald Islands—a pair of rocky specks 25 miles due west—make up what are considered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to be among "the wildest places on earth."