In the estuary formed by the mouth of the rivers Tinto and Odiel is the Odiel Estuary Salt Marshes Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a stopping-off point for
thousands of migratory birds which choose to cross the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar. It's the only area of outstanding natural beauty that has territory in
a provincial capital, given that it lies in the municipal districts of
Huelva,
Punta Umbría, Aljaraque and Gibraleón. Within its 7,185 hectares, furrowed by estuaries
and sprinkled with salt flats, can be found the largest breeding colony of spatulas in Europe – 30% of the continent's population of this species breeds here. This
year Andalusia's only breeding colony of pink flamingos, with a population of about 800 birds, is breeding here for the first time. And it's also been chosen as a
nesting site by a pair of ospreys, which may be a sign that this species is re-introducing itself into Andalusia. That would ensure a stable population in continental
Spain, where this bird has not been breeding since the eighties. Furthermore, there's a breeding colony of little terns numbering over two thousand pairs.
Apart from these animals, one can find grey herons, purple herons, little egrets, Kentish plovers, mallards, black-winged stilts, Asian desert warblers, marsh
harriers, black storks, glossy ibises, cranes and chameleons.
In these wetlands grow the salt cedar, the Phoenician juniper, the mastic tree, the Montpellier cistus, the rockrose, the kermes oak, rosemary, cordgrass, reeds and
bulrushes. Both its flora and its fauna may be observed and studied at close hand thanks to the existence of five footpaths.
Within the limits of the Odiel Estuary Salt Marshes lie the Isla de Enmedio Nature Reserve and the El Burro Salt Marshes Nature Reserve. In addition to its ecological
importance, it has a wealth of shellfish, fish and archaeological remains, since on Saltés Island (Isla Saltés) there are the remains of “Salthish”, an 11th-century
urban enclosure.
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