Cabo Rojo Salt Flats
Location
Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico
Category
Regional
Basis for Designation
More than 1% of the flyway population for Snowy and Wilson’s Plover.
Size
522 hectares (1,290 acres)
Date Designated
February 2010
Site Owner
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Site Partners
Puerto Rican Ornithological Society Inc. (SOPI, by its Spanish acronym)
Overview
The 505-hectare (1,249-acre) Cabo Rojo Salt Flats is an area of saline lagoons, salt flats, and mangrove swamps within the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Puerto Rico. The refuge is owned, protected, and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Puerto Rican Ornithological Society (SOPI, by its Spanish acronym) nominated the site with the Service’s support and is an active partner in bird conservation at the refuge.
Cabo Rojo Salt Flats Visitors Center. Photo: José G. Martínez.
The salt flats section of the refuge qualifies as a Site of Regional Importance for supporting 5.3% (80 individuals) of the world population of the tenuirostris subspecies of Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus) and 2.5% (151 individuals) of the world population of Wilson’s Plover (C. wilsonia). This site, which is also an Important Bird Area, hosts a total of 28 shorebird species.
