Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
A large bay with a shallow brackish zones, small freshwater marshes, saltmarshes, and saltpans. Human activities include agriculture, salt production, stock-raising, fishing, hunting, and recreation.
This is an important site for migratory and wintering waterbirds. Species of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria:
Phalacrocorax pygmeus (maximum 15 wintering individuals),
Aythya nyroca (passage),
Aquila clanga (wintering),
Falco naumanni (breeding),
Gallinago media (passage),
Larus audouinii.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Threats to the site include hunting, water pollution from industry and agriculture, filling-in of wetlands, the creation of embankments, overgrazing, fires, the expansion of cultivation, and new tourism development. Part of the area is a candidate SAC.
National Partial
International PartialPart of IBA covered by Wildlife Refuge (Prophitis Ilias/Polychnitou, 430 ha). 5,950 ha of IBA covered by Special Protection Area (Paraktioi Ygrotopoi Kolpou Kallonis, 6,461 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Kalloni Gulf, Lesvos (Greece). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/kalloni-gulf-lesvos-iba-greece on 22/12/2024.
