• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2000 baseline)
A 120 km stretch of the middle Warta river between Babin village (near Uniejów town) and Pogorzelica village (near Pyzdry town), including the Ko³o valley (Kotlina Kolska) and the Konin basin (Dolina Koniñska). Much of the valley used to flood each spring, but after the construction of Jeziorsko reservoir, spring flooding stopped completely, and habitats changed greatly. As a result of river embankment, the Ko³o valley is now a mosaic of cultivated fields, intensively used meadows, pastures, small stands of woodland and settlements. The main land-use is grazing. The Konin basin, however, has a more natural character. Here the river floods onto wet meadows in April and hollows within meadows are permanently flooded and not cultivated. Low-lying oxbow lakes and their surrounding areas are covered mainly with water-fringe vegetation. There are also riverside beds of osier Salix, scattered plantations, small areas of carr, and sand-dunes covered with pine Pinus forest. Land-use here is mainly non-intensive agriculture, including haymaking in meadows and livestock-grazing on private farms.

Key biodiversity
Up to 35,000 or more waterbirds roost here, mainly wildfowl Anser/Anas with lesser numbers of waders (Charadrii). Breeding species of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria: Aythya nyroca (recently extinct here), Gallinago media (two pairs). A total of 153 species have been recorded breeding.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Middle Warta River Valley (Poland). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/middle-warta-river-valley-iba-poland on 22/11/2024.