Data Zone
Country/territory: Iraq
IBA criteria met: B1i, B2, B3 (1994)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 126,000 ha
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2013 | not assessed | high | negligible |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (1994 baseline)
Enormous areas of swampy grassflats (c.90,000 ha) and intertidal mudflats (c.36,000 ha) backed by a belt of date palms and then by silt desert, immediately west of the point where the Shatt Al Arab enters the Gulf, and of the town of Fao. Tidal amplitude is large (3 m or more). There is a major oil terminal.
Key biodiversity
Except for scattered records from the 1920s and before, the site has been surveyed only once, in January 1968, and then only very incompletely. Counts then included 2,050 ducks, but the area appeared more important for wintering gulls and terns; 2,015 waders were also counted. Larus genei and Coracias benghalensis were breeding in the 1920s, and Passer hispaniolensis occurs in winter. The entire area was listed as a wetland of international importance by Carp (1980).
Non-bird biodiversity: No information available to BirdLife International.
Acknowledgements
Information compiled by D. J. Brooks, reviewed by Dr Khalid Y. Al-Dabbagh and Dr Hanna Y. Siman.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Khawr Abdallah (Iraq). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/khawr-abdallah-iba-iraq on 23/11/2024.