Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
Open plains used for non-intensive cultivation of cereals (mainly wheat), with sparse woodland of evergreen oak
Quercus ilex. Due to the poor soils, cereals are grown on crop rotations of long duration. Fallow land is used for grazing sheep and cattle. There is scattered human habitation.
The area is of great importance for breeding birds of steppic habitats, especially
Otis tarda (the most important site in Portugal).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Nesting birds are disturbed by the increasing road-traffic in the region and by the aircraft used in aerial spraying for agriculture. The weakness of the rural economy may lead farmers to change land-uses, which will affect the present high natural value of this landscape. The continuance of low-intensity land-uses is vital for the conservation of the steppe avifauna.
National None
International PartialIBA overlaps with Special Protection Area.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Castro Verde plains (Portugal). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/castro-verde-plains-iba-portugal on 22/12/2024.
