Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
An estuary with mudflats, saltmarshes, sand and shingle-beaches, reedbeds (
Phragmites), wet meadows, urban and industrial areas. The area includes the port of Le Havre.
The site holds 20,000 or more waterbirds on passage and in winter, on a regular basis (including
Podiceps cristatus 4,706 (wintering);
Melanitta nigra 4,006 (wintering);
Haematopus ostralegus 4,950 (wintering)). Species of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria:
Acrocephalus paludicola (passage).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The expansion of the harbour is the major threat to the site. Other threats include sand and gravel extraction and considerable hunting pressure at night.
National Partial
International Low1,000 ha of IBA covered by Nature Reserve (Estuaire de la Seine, 3,770 ha). 93 ha of IBA covered by Nature Reserve (Les Mannevilles, 93 ha). 9,000 ha of IBA covered by 2 Hunting Reserves (Baie de Seine; Banc herbeux; total area 9,000 ha). 1,300 ha of IBA covered by Special Protection Area (Estuaire de la Seine, 2,750 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Estuaire et embouchure de la Seine (France). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/estuaire-et-embouchure-de-la-seine-iba-france on 23/12/2024.
