Site description (2002 baseline)
This coastal IBA is situated within a formerly extensive area of flood-prone delta marshlands and mangrove in Ben Tre province, southern Vietnam. Much of original land cover of the area was converted from the 1980's onwards into a series of still 'shorebird friendly' habitats including permanent agriculture (paddy rice), aquaculture (shrimp ponds), commercial salt-pans, sand and mixed sand and mud tidal flats, sea grass beds and remnant stands of mangrove (Moore and Nguyen Phuc Boa Hoa 2001). These are 'transected' by an unpaved road, Route 833. The intertidal area is formed by a major river mouth (Ba Lai river) to the south and a creek and encompasses a large tidal flat of varying composition. Slightly elevated sand bars and a beach are present to the north of the creek. High tide roosts are present at the latter, and possibly, at an unsurveyed sand peninsula located 5-8 km north of this site.
Key biodiversity
A total of 35 shorebird species and 27 species of other waterbird were recorded in the Hoi Trinh / Binh Dai area during the course of the sole study of the site conducted to date (Moore and Nguyen Phuc Bao Hoa, 2001). However, as precise locality data is lacking within the report, this account potentially includes records and/or bird counts from northern areas outside of the Binh Dai district. Charadrius alexandrinus, Ardea alba, Chlidonias hybridus and Sterna caspia do not quite meet the threshold for A4i but are expected to do so because of the incompleteness of survey data from the site to date.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Binh Dai (Vietnam). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/binh-dai-iba-vietnam on 23/11/2024.