Gulf St Vincent Important Bird Area

The Gulf St Vincent Important Bird Area (IBA) is a 256 square kilometres (99 square miles) strip of coastline containing the continuous mudflats along the north and north-east of Gulf St Vincent north of Adelaide.

It extends from Ardrossan in the north-west, around the head of the Gulf to the mouth of the Port River and Outer Harbor in Adelaide.

The main habitats are intertidal mudflats, mangroves and two large saltworks, with some small coastal wetlands.

[1] The coast of Gulf St Vincent from Ardrossan to the Barker Inlet has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports over 1% of the world populations of black-faced cormorants, red-necked stints, sharp-tailed sandpipers, banded stilts, red-capped plovers, sooty and pied oystercatchers, and silver gulls.

[1] The IBA also adjoins and overlaps the proposed Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary to be established by the South Australian government over the period 2014 to 2018 on the east side of Gulf St Vincent between Parham in the north and the southern end of Barker Inlet in the south for the purpose of rehabilitating land used as salt pans, protecting habitat for international migratory birds, managing water quality in adjoining parts of Gulf St Vincent, creation of ‘green’ space, development of niche tourism and creation of opportunities for indigenous people.