Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
The site comprises two lagoons and the surrounding area, situated south of the town of Pedra Badejo on Santiago, in an intensively cultivated area. Banana, sugar-cane, manioc and various vegetables are grown; there are also extensive stands of coconut-palm. The brackish lagoons, which hold water all year-round, lie at the mouth of three major watercourses (Ribeira dos Picos, Ribeira Montanha and Ribeira Seca), which are dry most of the year but may swell to violent torrents during the rains. Large quantities of mud and debris are then deposited in the lagoons and surrounding areas, attracting many waders and herons.
See Box and Table 2 for key species. About 20 species of wader have been recorded, numbering up to c.300 birds, exceptional in the Cape Verdes. The lagoons are also regularly visited by herons (eight species recorded—both migrants and residents—including
Ardea (
purpurea)
bournei), and small parties of
Platalea leucorodia are observed annually.
Acrocephalus brevipennis is rather common in the cultivated areas. Other breeding species include
Halcyon leucocephala,
Sylvia conspicillata and
S. atricapilla.
Gallinula chloropus formerly bred, but has not been recorded since the late 1960s; this is, with site CV002, one of only two places in the Cape Verdes where the species has been known to breed.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
In view of the location of the site and its heavy use by local people and domestic livestock, protection of the lagoons will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to implement. In the past, the edges of the lagoons were lined with reedbeds, but these have apparently been cleared during the last decades—presumably a (or the) reason for the disappearance of
Gallinula chloropus.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Pedra Badejo lagoons (Cape Verde). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/pedra-badejo-lagoons-iba-cape-verde on 23/11/2024.
