• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
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• Reference and further resources

Site description (2001 baseline)
The site is located on the south coast of the island of Unguja, commonly known as Zanzibar island, together with an associated islet. The site covers the two adjacent bays of Kiwani and Kombeni in the south-west of the island which have a soft sediment of coral silt. There is a more or less continuous stand of mangroves at the top of the bay. Chumbe island lies 5 km south-west of the mainland of Zanzibar, separated from Kombeni Bay by the Fumba peninsula. It is a small coral islet, not much more than 1 km long and only 200 m wide.

Key biodiversity
See Box for key species. The areas of silt attract large numbers of Palearctic waders and the mangroves are important roost-sites. Two tiny mushroom-coral islets a few hundred metres off the southern tip of Chumbe hold a colony of Sterna dougallii. Apart from coastal thicket species such as Nectarinia veroxii and Cossypha natalensis, Chumbe holds an interesting population of what are accepted to be Acrocephalus scirpaceus, existing in dry coral-rag thicket.

Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Zanzibar Island-South Coast (Tanzania). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/zanzibar-island-south-coast-iba-tanzania on 22/12/2024.