La Breña & Barbate Marshes Natural Park

This Natural Park is located in the South-western Cadiz, between the municipalities of Vejer de la Frontera and Barbate. It is endowed with a diverse set of ecosystems: marine systems, salt marshes, pine woods and cliffs (up to 100 metres above sea level). These cliffs are used by breeding species such as Yellow-legged Gull, Jackdaw and Peregrine Falcon. This site was recently selected to develop a reintroduction programme for one of the rarest birds in the Western Palearctic: the Northern Bald Ibis. This bird has been returned to Spain after a few hundred years, in an effort to increase the global population which is limited to endangered pockets in Morocco and Turkey.

In the mouth of the river Barbate, the winding channels and tributaries form an excellent marsh to watch waders. Within its boundaries there are fresh water lakes that are normally overflowing all year long. This availability of water makes these zones highly interesting sites for ornithology because it is here that aquatic birds concentrate, especially in periods of drought.

The recent transformation of part of the marsh into an aquaculture site has caused the appearance of new habitats, where we can observe species like Collared Pratincole, Stone Curlew, Audouin’s Gull, Great White Egret and Caspian Tern among others.