Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Area includes Agrakhansky bay and coastal lakes on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, north of Makhachkala. A long peninsula, jutting into the Caspian Sea, borders the Bay.
About 300000 ducks winter here and many other migrating species stopover. It is a particularly important site for waders, with tens of thousands stoping and feeding here on passage, especially C.alpina, C.alba and T.totanus, but no detailed counts have been made to date. The data on waders was compiled from single observations between 1983 and 1986.
Increasing water levels of the Caspian Sea can improve habitat conditions for waders. However, in 1972 a channel was built, which resulted in the flooding and destruction of a main dike and a drop in the level of Agrakhansky Bay (in previous yers the level of the bay was above sea level). Today, all that remains is a small lake of open water in the southern part of Agrakhansky bay. Sand beaches and meadows also provide good feeding habitat for migrating waders.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
Part of area is included in the shadow list of Ramsar sites (15000 ha) under name "Agrakhanski bay and delta of Terek river" ("Agrakhanski zaliv i delta reki Terek")
The map polygon is provided courtesy of the Spatial Database on Important Bird Areas of Russia 2014 (© Russian Bird Conservation Union, © Transparent World).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Agrakhanski Bay (North Agrakhan) (Russia (European)). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/agrakhanski-bay-(north-agrakhan)-iba-russia-(european) on 23/11/2024.
