UK040
Medway Estuary and Marshes


Country/territory: United Kingdom

IBA criteria met: A4iii, B1i, B2, C2, C3, C4, C6 (2007)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here

Area: 4,668 ha

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
IBA conservation status
Year of assessment (most recent) State (condition) Pressure (threat) Response (action)
2007 very unfavourable high low
For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here


Site description (2007 baseline)
The Medway estuary forms a single tidal system with the Swale and joins the Thames estuary between the Isle of Grain and Sheerness. It has a complex arrangement of tidal channels, which drain around large islands of saltmarsh and grazing-marsh. The mudflats support extensive beds of algae and eel-grass Zostera. The IBA is important for wintering and passage wildfowl. Terns and gulls breed on saltmarsh islands, and wildfowl breed on the grazing-marshes.


Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Medway Estuary and Marshes. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/medway-estuary-and-marshes-iba-united-kingdom on 19/03/2024.