Data Zone
Country/territory: Poland
IBA criteria met: C1, C2, C4, C6 (2010)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 36,380 hectares (363.80 km2)
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2019 | not assessed | very high | not assessed |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2000 baseline)
The site comprises a 260-km stretch of the Wis³a (Vistula) river flood-plain (of which about 190 km is embanked against floods), between W³oc³awek town in the south and Przegalina sluice (6 km from the Wis³a river mouth) in the north. The terrain is highly varied. Riverbanks or slopes are dozens of metres high in some places, very flat and low-lying in others. The riverbed itself constitutes about quarter of the site's area; the rest consists of meadows, scrub (mainly willow Salix), small patches of riverine forest, and numerous oxbow lakes and wetlands. The river passes through some quite large towns (e.g. Toruñ, Bydgoszcz, Grudzi¹dz, Tczew).
Key biodiversity
A total of 126 bird species have been recorded breeding or probably breeding at the site, including the largest number of Crex crex (153 calling males in 1998) at any site in the Wis³a valley. The area also supports significant parts of the national breeding populations of Charadrius hiaticula, Charadrius dubius, Sterna hirundo and Sterna albifrons. In 1994 a total of c.37,000 waterbirds were estimated to occur along the river in the late summer post-breeding period, and 46,500 in winter (mainly ducks).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Lower Vistula River Valley (Poland). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/lower-vistula-river-valley-iba-poland on 23/12/2024.