Kiritimati Kiritimati Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, is a Pacific Ocean raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name "Kiritimati" is a respelling of the English word "Christmas" in the Kiribati language, in which the combination "ti" is pronounced "s", and the name is thus pronounced . The island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world, about ; its lagoon is roughly the same size. The atoll is about in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline extends for over . Kiritimati comprises over 70% of the total land
Kiritimati hypothetical taxa, as does biogeography due to its remote location. At least one, possibly several "Gallirallus" and/or "Porzana" rails make the most likely candidates, given their former presence in the region and that conditions on Kiritimati would seem well suited. Perhaps a "Todiramphus" kingfisher was also present; such a bird would probably have belonged to the sacred kingfisher ("T. sanctus") group as that species today occurs as a vagrant in Micronesia, and related forms are resident in southeastern Polynesia. These birds would have fallen victim to the Polynesian rat and, in the case of the rails which would have almost