Data Zone
Country/territory: Denmark
IBA criteria met: A4i, A4ii, A4iii, B1i, B1ii, B2, B3, C2, C3, C4 (2000)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 870,000 ha
Site description (2000 baseline)
A shallow sea area with a sandy bay, estuaries and a mosaic of hard-bottom banks. The area given here is of the Danish part only; 180,000 ha (17% of the total transboundary area) are within Swedish territory.
Key biodiversity
This is an exceptionally important area for wintering seaduck and pelagic species (divers and auks), with hundreds of thousands of birds wintering at the site. Seaduck are mainly within Danish waters and the pelagic species mainly in the Swedish part. This is the most important wintering area in north-west Europe for Somateria mollissima (>13% of the north-west European population), Melanitta nigra (>38% of the north-west European population) and Alca torda (>10% of the north-west European population).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Northern Kattegat (Denmark). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/northern-kattegat-iba-denmark on 22/11/2024.