It is also a good site from which to see birds which breed on neighbouring islets, including red-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds.

The island has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because, as well as breeding seabirds, it supports significant populations of rufous-vented chachalacas and copper-rumped hummingbirds.

In 1908 the British politician and businessman Sir William Ingram purchased Little Tobago in order to turn it into a bird sanctuary.

The next year he introduced the greater bird of paradise (Paradisaea apoda) to the island in an attempt to save the species from overhunting for the plume trade in its native New Guinea.

[2] After Ingram's death in 1924 his heirs deeded the island to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago as a wildlife sanctuary.