Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Located in the north of Burundi, immediately north of the town of Kirundo close to the Rwandan border, Lake Rwihinda, known in the past as Lac aux Oiseaux (Bird Lake), lies a little way upstream of the Akanyaru wetlands (RW005), to the north-west. The area of the lake is 425 ha, but the total protected area has been extended to cover 8,000 ha.
See Box and Table 3 for key species. In the past, this site held large numbers of breeding
Phalacrocorax carbo,
Anhinga rufa,
Egretta ardesiaca,
Ardea melanocephala and
Nycticorax nycticorax. Large numbers are rarely observed today, however, due to decreasing water-levels, fishing and agriculture. There are records of
Ardeola idea,
Circus macrourus,
Falco naumanni and
Gallinago media. In addition, one species of the Guinea–Congo Forests biome, five of the Afrotropical Highlands biome and two of the Zambezian biome have been recorded, while a third,
Calamonastes undosus, used to do so, but is now possibly extinct locally due to habitat loss (see Table 3). Indeed, the current status of a number of species at Rwihinda is uncertain.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The lake is surrounded by human settlements and pressures upon it from fishing and the demand for agricultural land are extremely high.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Rwihinda Lake Managed Nature Reserve (Burundi). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/rwihinda-lake-managed-nature-reserve-iba-burundi on 23/12/2024.
