Data Zone
Country/territory: Portugal
IBA criteria met: B2, C6 (2002)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 70,445 hectares (704.45 km2)
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2005 | not assessed | low | not assessed |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2002 baseline)
Extensive greywache-schist mountainous massif with soft and round forms where are born several watercourses of Algarve's Lee and Weather side, and of Alentejo. This site is covered by extensive cork-oak groves. At shadowy parts, complex and developed arborescent thickets, with arbutus groves and heaths, are present; and at sunny sides, we find diverses simplify shrubs, prevailing cistus. Areas with soft relief hold human occupation, reduced since 60's, with associate subsistence agricultural patches, mainly at occidental and oriental extremes. The site is acrossed by River Odeolouca, its valley bounds Algarve and Alentejo regions, and presents linear human occupation concentrated in dispersed nucleus.
Key biodiversity
The extensive well-preserved cork-oak groves are essential for breeding stability of Hieraaetus fasciatus. These habitats with low human intervention are also propitious for Circaetus gallicus that presents here a representative nucleus, completing those of Monchique mountains and Espinhaço do Cão (Weather side mountains). It is also to relate the presence of Bubo bubo that nests in hillsides with dense thickets or in rocky outcrops.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Serra do Caldeirão (Portugal). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/serra-do-caldeirão-iba-portugal on 23/12/2024.