Skerjafjördur (501)
Iceland, Europe
Site overview
KBA status: confirmed
Year of last assessment: 2000
National site name: Skerjafjörður
Central coordinates: Latitude: 64.0667, Longitude: -22.0000
System: marine, terrestrial
Elevation (m): 0 to 5
Area of KBA (km2): 30.47406
Protected area coverage (%): 18.68
KBA classification: Regional
Legacy site: Yes
Site details
Site description: A coastal area in and near the capital, with sea bays, shingle and stony beaches, peninsulas, intertidal flats, brackish lagoons and marshes. The area extends from Bali on álftanes along the coast, inwards to Skerjafjördur and up to the north part of Seltjarnarnes. Eider husbandry (Somateria mollissima) is practised at Bessastadir.
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance that was identified using previously established criteria and thresholds for the identification of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) and for which available data indicate that it does not meet global KBA criteria and thresholds set out in the Global Standard.
Additional biodiversity: An important area for coastal waterbirds. Other species in notable numbers include Clangula hyemalis (wintering), Haematopus ostralegus (c.60 breeding pairs; 200+ staging on passage), Calidris alpina (few hundreds staging on passage), Tringa totanus (few hundreds staging on passage), and hundreds to thousands of large gulls in winter (Larus argentatus, L. glaucoides, L. hyperboreus and L. marinus).
Habitats
Land use: agriculture | tourism/recreation | urban/industrial/transport
| IUCN Habitat | Coverage % | Habitat detail |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Intertidal | 13 | |
| Grassland | 5 | |
| Marine Neritic | 70 | |
| Marine Coastal/Supratidal | 13 |
Threats
Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Birds are disturbed by local people and tourists. The area is on the list of sites of conservation interest in the Nature Conservation Register. The site is an enlarged and re-named version of the IBA `álftanes', formerly IS020 in the previous international IBA inventory (Grimmett and Jones 1989).