Data Zone
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
Protection status:
| Most recent IBA monitoring assessment | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment | Threat score (pressure) | Condition score (state) | Action score (response) |
| 2007 | high | very unfavourable | low |
| For more information about IBA monitoring please click here | |||
Site description
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 (2019) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Medway Estuary and Marshes. Downloaded from
http://www.birdlife.org on 13/12/2019.
