Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
The Rock of Gibraltar is dominated by a dense cover of maquis and garrigue, including many important fruit-bearing shrubs that support large passerine populations on passage and during the winter.
Gibraltar is a well-known migratory bottleneck site for birds of prey, with an estimated 250,000 raptors crossing the Strait in a season. If the winds are right then most of these pass over Gibraltar, and numbers may in fact be higher. It is also a stop-over site for passerines and near-passerines, with a rapid turnover of birds on passage during both northward and southward migration.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
A number of military sites are designated as conservation areas. 197 ha of the Rock of Gibraltar are proposed as a SPA under the EC Birds Directive, and as a SAC under the EC Habitats Directive.
National Low
International None45 ha of IBA covered by Nature Reserve (Upper Rock, 45 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Rock of Gibraltar (Gibraltar (to UK)). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/rock-of-gibraltar-iba-gibraltar-(to-uk) on 22/12/2024.
