Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

Site description These marshes extend for about 15 km along the coast on the south side of the Thames, and include areas of the inner Thames up to the Thames barrier. Habitat-types include extensive grazing-marshes, saltmarshes, mudflats and pits. Reed Phragmites and duckweed Lemna dominate the freshwater dykes, with Ceratophyllum in the more brackish dykes. Waders and wildfowl breed on the grazing-marshes, which also attract wintering raptors. The IBA attracts a wide range of wintering and passage estuarine and wetland birds.

Populations of IBA trigger species

Protected areas

Protected area	Designation	Area (ha)	Relationship with IBA	Overlap with IBA (ha)
Inner Thames Marshes	Site of Special Scientific Interest	486	protected area contained by site	487
South Thames Estuary and Marshes	Site of Special Scientific Interest	5,289	protected area contained by site	5,355
Thames Estuary and Marshes	Birds Directive	4,839	protected area contained by site	4,839
Thames Estuary and Marshes	Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar)	5,589	protected area contained by site	5,589

Habitats

Land use

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Recommended citation  BirdLife International (2013) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Thames Estuary and Marshes. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 25/05/2013

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