Current view: Text account
Site description (2003 baseline):
Site location and context
Taboga Island (564 ha) is 10 km offshore, slightly west of the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal, and Uravá (Urabá) Island (63 ha) is 250 m to its east. The picturesque fishing and tourist town of Taboga is on the northern side of the island, while Uravá is uninhabited. Taboguilla is a steep-sided island located 2.3 km northeast of Taboga and Uravá Islands. There is an industrial plant on its northern side. Chamá (Chame) is an elongated steep islet 4.5 km south of Taboga Island.
The site is a globally important breeding site for Brown Pelican. Between 880 and 1,455 pairs have been recorded nesting on the islands of the group (Angehr and Kushlan MS, Maridueña 1979, Daguerre 2000). Brown Booby, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Egret, and Black-crowned Night-Heron also breed (Wetmore 1965, Ridgely and Gwynne 1989, Angehr and Kushlan MS). An endemic subspecies of Streaked Saltator is confined to Taboga (Wetmore et al. 1984).
Non-bird biodiversity: The lizard Sphaerodactylus lineolatus has been recorded.
Taboga, Uravá, and Taboguilla are mainly covered by semideciduous lowland forest. The town of Taboga is on the north side of Taboga island. Areas around the town are deforested, and the forest on this side of the island is highly disturbed. Chamá is mostly covered with herbaceous vegetation with a few small trees along the crest of the island.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Some of the nesting trees in the colony on Taboga are damaged by dry-season grass fires set by island residents. Parts of the colony are also used as a garbage dump by the Taboga community. Given their importance, the part of the Taboguilla island containing the nesting areas and Chamá should be incorporated into the Taboga Wildlife Refuge.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
None known.
Taboga Wildlife Refuge was established in 1984 includes the steep western and southern side of Taboga from the coast to the crest of the island, and all of Uravá.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Taboga Group (Panama). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/taboga-group-iba-panama on 15/01/2025.
