Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
A shallow (<4 m) bay on the south-west coast of Hiiumaa island, with small islets, reedbeds and coastal meadows. The main economic activity is intensive fishing.
Vanamõisa bay is an important staging site for migrating
Anser anser and
Grus grus.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Threats include human disturbance of birds, tourism, unsustainable hunting, fishing, and overgrowth of coastal meadows with reed
Phragmites due to undergrazing. The IBA is a planned core area of the West Estonian Archipelago Biosphere Reserve. Research involves the monitoring of migrating and wintering waterbirds.
National None
International High1,329 ha of IBA covered by Biosphere Reserve (West Estonian Archipelago, 1,560,000 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Vanamõisa bay (Estonia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/vanamõisa-bay-iba-estonia on 26/12/2024.