Bird Island, situated at the entrance to Sippican Harbor and near the head of Buzzards Bay, takes its name from the birds that have been nesting there for years. Now, it is the birds and ironically erosion that have contributed to the preservation of Bird Island Lighthouse. Federal grant money and an Army Corps of Engineer project to save the one-and-a-half-acre island, habitat for nearly one-third of North America’s endangered roseate terns, plus vigorous local fundraising and work by the Bird Island Lighthouse Preservation Society have made it all possible.