Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

Ornithological information Biome-restricted species: The site is not known to qualify under criterion A3 (Evans et al. 2000).

Site description The IBA comprises the section of the Mekong channel from Phou Xiang Thong National Protected Area to Siphandon IBA (LA022). The upper section (c.90 km) forms the western boundary of Phou Xiang Thong National Protected Area and the international border with Thailand. This section comprises wide stretches with earth banks and narrow stretches with rocky banks, and contains a few rocky islands (Evans et al. 2000). The lower section (c.130 km), which lies entirely within Lao P.D.R., is one of the widest sections of the Mekong River in the country. Although there is probably no natural riverine vegetation left along this section, there are many seasonally flooded sandbars, low vegetated islands and rocky islets (Thewlis et al. 1998). Some islands have very large sandy beaches or bars up to 10 km long (Evans et al. 2000). The upper section of the IBA supports small numbers of Small Pratincoles Glareola lactea, moderate numbers of River Lapwings Vanellus duvaucelii and high numbers of Wire-tailed Swallows Hirundo smithii (Evans et al. 2000). The lower section, which has a high proportion of sandbars, supports large numbers of Small Pratincoles, and smaller numbers of other sandbar-nesting birds, including River Lapwings, River Terns Sterna aurantia and the last known nesting Little Terns S. albifrons in Lao P.D.R. The recently described Mekong Wagtail Motacilla samveasnae has been confirmed to occur in the lower section of the IBA, and provisionally recorded in the upper section (Duckworth et al. 2001).

Populations of IBA trigger species

Protected areas

Protected area	Designation	Area (ha)	Relationship with IBA	Overlap with IBA (ha)
Phou Xiengthong	National Biodiversity Conservation Area	120,000	protected area overlaps with site	10,000

Habitats

Land use

Management considerations The major threats to biodiversity at the IBA are hunting and incidental disturbance to nesting birds (Evans et al. 2000). Populations of many riverine species are believed to have declined along the southern Lao Mekong as a result of these factors (Evans et al. 2000). A potential future threat is hydropower development on the upper Mekong River or its tributaries, which could result in changes in flow patterns, with severe implications for riverine bird communities. Such development is planned for stretches of the Mekong River within Yunnan province, China (Duckworth et al. 2002).

Protection status The Phou Xiang Thong Protected Area is the only protected area in Laos include a stretch of the Mekong River. In the opposite of the Protected Area, in Thailand, along the western bank of the Mekong River, there is the Pha Taem National Park.

Further web sources of information 

Site account from Important Bird Areas in Lao P.D.R. (Ounekham and Inthapatha 2003)

References Duckworth, J. W., Alström, P., Davidson, P., Evans, T. D, Poole, C. M., Setha, T. and Timmins, R. J. (2001) A new species of wagtail from the lower Mekong basin. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 121(3): 152-182.Engelbach, P. (1932) Les oiseaux du Laos méridional. Oiseau et R.F.O. 2: 439-498.Evans, T. D., Towll, H. C., Timmins, R. J., Thewlis, R. M., Stones, A. J., Robichaud, W. G. and Barzen, J. (2000) Ornithological records from the lowlands of southern Laos during December 1995-September 1996, including areas on the Thai and Cambodian borders. Forktail 16: 29-52.Thewlis, R. M., Timmins, R. J., Evans, T. D. and Duckworth, J. W. (1998) The conservation status of birds in Laos: a review of key species. Bird Conserv. Internat. 8(suppl.): 1-159.

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Recommended citation  BirdLife International (2013) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Mekong Channel from Phou Xiang Thong to Siphandon. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/05/2013

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