Data Zone
Country/territory: Philippines
IBA criteria met: A1, A4i (2001)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 14,400 hectares (144.00 km2)
Site description (2001 baseline)
Buguey Wetlands are on the north coast of Luzon, east of the mouth of the Cagayan River, and cover c.80% of Buguey Municipality. They are a complex of coastal lagoons, freshwater marshes, brackish and saline marshes, mangrove swamps and intertidal mudflats, with some fish ponds and shrimp ponds and a very large area of rice paddies. The wetland is an important area for rice and fisheries production.
Key biodiversity
Buguey Wetlands are an important staging and wintering area for migratory waterfowl, notably ducks and shorebirds. Some 3,000 5,000 ducks have been recorded in November, mostly Tree-ducks Dendrocygna sp and the threatened Philippine Duck. Up to 3,000 other waterfowl have been observed, and more than 1,000 shorebirds are regularly recorded there during AWC counts.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Buguey wetlands (Philippines). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/buguey-wetlands-iba-philippines on 23/12/2024.