ascension island, including fourteen inshore stacks and marine habitat extending out for from the coastline, has been identified as an important bird area (iba) by birdlife international as a breeding site for seabirds. birds for which the iba is significant include red-billed tropicbirds, ascension frigatebirds (an endemic breeder), sooty terns and black noddies. the island was formerly home to the endemic ascension crake, but the species has been extinct since the early nineteenth century.