Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
A shallow coastal wetland located west of the Rosetta Nile branch. Three main drains discharge into the lake, while Bughaz El Maadia provides a connection with the sea. The water in the lake is mainly fresh, but increases in salinity towards the Bughaz and during the summer. Most of the lake margins are covered with dense growths of
Typha and
Phragmites, which cover about 50% of the lake’s area. Saltmarshes, salinas and high dunes, as well as some orchards, are found on the sandbar separating the lake from the Mediterranean. Lake Idku supports a fishery of moderate importance.
See Box for key species. Lake Idku is of moderate importance for both wintering and breeding waterbirds. In winter 1989/90, a total of 22,549 waterbirds was counted. The lake probably also supports important numbers of breeding birds associated with reed-swamps, such as
Porphyrio porphyrio,
Ixobrychus minutus and
Centropus senegalensis.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Lake Idku suffers from the same ailments that affect other delta wetlands: drainage and land-claim, pollution, disturbance, waterbird-catching, etc. Habitat loss through land-claim is certainly the most serious of these threats. Lake Idku has been reduced to less than half its original size.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Lake Idku (Egypt). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/lake-idku-iba-egypt on 25/01/2025.
