• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2001 baseline)
The site is the course and flood-zone of the 448 km Baro river. Along with its tributaries, the river dominates Gambella Region. The Baro is the only navigable river in the country: during the rainy season traders used to travel by boat between Gambella town and Khartoum in the Sudan. The Baro meets the Pibor river to the west of Jikawo. During the rainy season the river floods to form the huge inundated area to the east and south of Jikawo, previously penetrating as far as Abobo and Gog to the east and south-east.

Key biodiversity
See Box for key species. In the dry season, when the Baro river is low, huge numbers of storks and other waterbirds (including pelicans, herons, egrets, etc.) gather to rest on sandbars in the river. A flock of 500 Glareola nordmanni, apparently wintering, was noted at Jikawo in January 1970. Balaeniceps rex was recorded from swamps 20 km west of Gambella in the early 1960s, and was also found 60 km west of the western perimeter of Gambella National Park, west of Gog, in 1973. There is an unconfirmed 1996 report of B. rex breeding in the vicinity of Nasir in West Nile province, Sudan, adjacent to Jikawo, and large numbers have been reported from the Baro river system in Sudan, suggesting that the species may be present on the Ethiopian side of the border close to Nasir. During March 1976, thousands of Anastomus lamelligerus were recorded between Itang and Jikawo, and similar numbers of Ciconia abdimii were found between Pukwo and Jikawo. The latter species is thought to be an irregular non-breeding visitor.

Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Baro river (Ethiopia). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/baro-river-iba-ethiopia on 22/12/2024.