Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
An area of huge mudflats, grassy shorelines, saltmarshes, mires and birch
Betula forest, close to Stabbursneset headland. Heathland dominates on the islands. There is some traditional egg-collecting by local inhabitants, and harvesting of cloudberries
Rubus chamaemorus on the islands. Goose hunting takes place, mainly of
Anser fabalis. The area includes `Stabbursneset', a site (the former NO010) in the previous pan-European IBA inventory (Grimmett and Jones 1989).
Valdakmyra is an important staging ground for almost the entire Norwegian breeding population of
Anser erythropus, both in spring (May-June) and autumn (July-September), the species having declined dramatically in Fennoscandia since the 1940s. The huge flocks of staging
Calidris canutus in late May are a spectacular sight, foraging on the sandbanks exposed at low tide before continuing their migration to Greenland and northern Canada. Some of these birds are the same as those staging at Sørkjosen (IBA 017) in Troms. Wildfowl and other waders, both breeding in the area or on migration, are also numerous in spring, e.g.
Limosa lapponica (up to several hundred on passage). Good numbers of
Somateria mollissima (10,000) and
Melanitta nigra (3,000) gather to moult offshore after the breeding season. Species of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria:
Haliaeetus albicilla (1-2 pairs breed elsewhere but forage in the area in spring and summer).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Stabbursnes Nature Reserve consists of 14 km
2 of water/mudflats and c.2.2 km
2 of land. All human traffic is prohibited at Valdakmyra (part of the Nature Reserve, c.3.5-4.0 km
2) between 1 May and 30 June. The staging
Anser erythropus have been monitored regularly since 1971, and yearly since 1990 by NOF and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.
National Partial
International Partial1,620 ha of IBA covered by Nature Reserve (Stabbursneset, 1,620 ha). 1,620 ha of IBA covered by Ramsar Site (Stabbursneset, 1,620 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Inner Porsangerfjord (Norway). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/inner-porsangerfjord-iba-norway on 22/11/2024.
