Data Zone
Country/territory: Madagascar
IBA criteria met: A1, A3 (1999)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 57,734 ha
Site description (2001 baseline)
Loza Bay lies between Analalava and Antsohihy and consists of a narrow 10-km-long estuary. The bay is 700–1,500 m wide and less than 10 m deep, except at its mouth where it can be 30 m deep at low tide. Towards the mouth, mangrove is weakly developed and sparse, growing on shingle-beaches in patches of c.10 ha each. Mangrove is most developed (10 m high or more) where tributaries flow into the Bay. Rather large areas of intertidal mudflat fringe the mangrove. The banks are covered by dense, dry deciduous forest, mostly degraded, with savanna on those parts of the neighbouring hills which have not been eroded bare.
Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 3 for key species. Twenty species are known from the site, of which one is endemic to Madagascar. Several pairs of Haliaeetus vociferoides are known.
Non-bird biodiversity: Cetacean: Tursiops truncatus (VU).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Loza Bay wetlands (Madagascar). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/loza-bay-wetlands-iba-madagascar on 22/11/2024.