Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
Freshwater lakes with wooded islands and peninsulas. Lake shores have parkland, reedbeds, deciduous forests, meadows, fields and scattered habitations. Artificial landscapes are mainly arable and improved grazing-meadows, and may include some more natural humid grasslands but the extent is unknown. The deciduous forest includes extensive areas of
Alnus carr, areas of mature
Fagus and
Quercus forest, and some conifer plantations.
The most important freshwater area in Denmark for birds and the only Danish freshwater area designated as a Ramsar Site. A very important breeding site for
Botaurus stellaris. More than 20,000 waterbirds regularly occur on passage. Species
of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria:
Haliaeetus albicilla (1 pair breeding).
Circus aeruginosus and
Sterna hirundo, both listed on Annex I of the EC Birds Directive, also breed at the site.
National Partial
International High3,810 ha of IBA covered by Ramsar Site (Maribo lakes, 4,400 ha). 3,810 ha of IBA covered by Special Protection Area (Maribosøerne, 3,810 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Maribo lakes (Denmark). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/maribo-lakes-iba-denmark on 23/12/2024.
