Data Zone
Country/territory: Morocco
IBA criteria met: A1, A4i (2001)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 14,000 hectares (140.00 km2)
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2014 | not assessed | very high | low |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2001 baseline)
The site consists of the lower reaches of the Oued M’harhar and Oued Al Hachef, which join to form the 3-km-long estuarine river of the Oued Tahadart, the surrounding land and a sandy stretch of the coast between Tanger (Tangiers) and Asilah. Habitats include marshy basins, coastal mudflats, many small freshwater and brackish merjas and dayas, areas of rough pasture and some patches of cork-oak woodland.
Key biodiversity
See Box for key species. The site harbours one of the few populations of Otis tarda in Morocco—the only country in North Africa where this species occurs. Precise data on population size are not available, but 35 individuals were seen at Tahadart and 55 in Al Hachef–Charkane during surveys in 1998, and evidence of breeding was observed (courtship displays, nests). Thousands of migrant waders, gulls and waterfowl pass through Oued Tahaddart, particularly in winters with heavy rainfall when much of the site is inundated. Up to 600 Grus grus and hundreds of Phoenicopterus ruber and Platalea leucorodia have been recorded, but none of these species is known to have exceeded IBA threshold criteria. Numenius tenuirostris formerly occurred as a wintering visitor.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Oued Tahadart (Morocco). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/oued-tahadart-iba-morocco on 26/12/2024.