Data Zone
Country/territory: Thailand
IBA criteria met: A4iii (2004)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 5,000 ha
Site description (2004 baseline)
The IBA comprises the whole of Pattani bay, a c.30 km stretch of shallow gradient coastline along the Gulf of Thailand. Natural habitats at the site comprise mangroves and intertidal mudflats, which are bisected by a series of rivers. The least degraded mangroves remaining at the site occur in Yaring district. The site is surrounded by fishing communities, and Pattani town lies on the western side of the bay.
Key biodiversity
Ao Pattani is an important site for migratory shorebirds, and regularly supports greater than 20,000 congregatory waterbirds. A number of globally threatened waterbird species have been recorded at the site, although none is thought to regularly occur in significant numbers. There are recent records of the globally endangered Nordmann's Greenshank Tringa guttifer and Black-faced Spoonbill Platalea minor, as well as historical records of the globally vulnerable Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmeus, including the highest count of this species to date in Thailand: 13 birds in 1984.
Non-bird biodiversity: Mammals Smooth-coated Otter Lutrogale perspicillata (VU)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2023) Important Bird Area factsheet: Ao Pattani. Downloaded from
http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/ao-pattani-iba-thailand on 21/09/2023.
