Two new sets of BirdLife stamps from the Crown Agents, featuring shorebirds which spend part of their year on the Pacific islands of Kiribati, demonstrate that responsibility for the future of threatened bird species is shared by the smallest as well as the largest states.

One set features common shorebirds familiar to birdwatchers in Northern America, Eurasia, Africa and Australasia, including Sanderling Calidris alba, Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus and Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva.

The second set is devoted to the Bristle-thighed Curlew Numenius tahitiensis, a bird classified by BirdLife International as Vulnerable, because its entire global breeding population is 7000 birds. It breeds in western Alaska, USA. A further 3000 sub-adult birds spend their summer on Pacific Islands, including the islands which make up Kiribati, and some breeding-age adults winter in Kiribati.

"Threatened species are found across the largest land masses and on the smallest islands. Some, like the Bristle-thighed Curlew, have ranges that are shared by many states." —Dr Leon Bennun, Director of Science and Policy, BirdLife

Kiribati, a group of 33 coral atolls straddling the Equator, includes the territory formerly known as the Gilbert Islands – until granted self-rule by the UK in 1971, and full independence in 1979. Tourism is of increasing importance to Kiribati, which otherwise depends on fishing and the export of copra (dried coconut used in the production of coconut oil).

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