4 April 2021, Easter Day

When Europeans explored the Pacific they sometimes named islands for the day they found them. Thus Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was named by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen who encountered it on Easter Day 5 April 1722 and Christmas Island (Kiritimati) was given its English name by Captain James Cook on Christmas Eve 1777.

Easter Island is best known for its nearly 1,000 stone statues, moai, created by the Rapa Nui people. Kiritimati (pronounced “Ki-rismas” in the local language) is so remote that it was used for nuclear bomb tests 60+ years ago. Today the entire coral atoll is a wildlife sanctuary.

Christmas shearwaters (Puffinus nativitatis) are pelagic birds that nest on remote Pacific islands (map) and were named for their largest breeding colony at Kiritimati, Christmas Island.

They also nest on Easter Island … so Easter Island has Christmas birds.

p.s. Happy Easter 2021.

(photos and map from Wikimedia Commons, sound from Xeno Canto. Click on the captions to see the originasl)