Current view: Text account
Site description (1994 baseline):
Site location and context
A 55 km stretch of coast along the Straits of Hormoz, c.10-70 km east of Bandar Abbas, incorporating three river deltas. The site includes extensive intertidal mudflats (over 1 km wide), significant stands of mangrove at the river mouths and along adjacent creeks, long sand beaches, low sandbars and sand spits, and two large shallow bays, Khor Tiab and Khor Kolahy, near the mouth of the Rud-i Minab in the east. The rivers flow only after erratic rainfall in the interior, usually in winter. The waters of the Rud-i-Shirin and Rud-i-Minab are fresh, but the Rud-i-Shur is somewhat brackish. Mangrove
Avicennia marina occurs at the river mouths, and fringes the tidal creeks. The adjacent arid plain supports a sparse woodland of
Acacia,
Prosopis,
Ziziphus and
Tamarix with large areas of bare, sandy flats. Land ownership is public. There are a few small settlements, generally with date gardens. Fishing is important.
See box for key species. An extremely important wintering area for shorebirds and gulls, notably
Haematopus ostralegus,
Limosa lapponica,
Numenius arquata and
Larus cachinnans/
L. argentatus. The site may also be important for breeding herons and egrets including
Ardea goliath and
Ardeola grayii. The adjacent plains and woodland have a typical Baluchi avifauna with several Indo-Malayan species at or near their western limit, notably
Gyps bengalensis,
Francolinus pondicerianus,
Athene brama,
Dendrocopos assimilis and
Acridotheres tristis. Common winter visitors include
Phylloscopus inornatus humei.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
There is no legal protection, though the area lies within a Ramsar Site (20,000 ha) designated in 1975. There is some cutting of mangrove for fuel and grazing by domestic livestock. There may be some pollution from the nearby port of Bandar Abbas, and oil pollution is a constant threat.
Data-sheet compiled by Dr D. A. Scott, reviewed by Dept of Environment.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Rud-i-Shur, Rud-i-Shirin and Rud-i-Minab deltas (Iran, Islamic Republic of). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/rud-i-shur-rud-i-shirin-and-rud-i-minab-deltas-iba-iran-islamic-republic-of on 23/11/2024.
