Paratuk Island

Area in hectares: 0,2
Altitude: 3 m
Protection status: Unprotected at local and national level, Emerald site under the Bern Convention
Coordinates: 41°54’35.94″N, 19°20’29.24″E

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Paratuk Island is located on the Bojana River, along the border with Albania. It is located 1 km of air distance from the Salina and 7 km from the mouth of the Bojana River.

ORNITHOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE

The island is the most important breeding site for herons and cormorants in the delta. More than 200 pairs of small white herons, Egretta garzetta, 220 pairs of Pygmy Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pygmeus, the same number of cormorants, Phalacrocorax carbo, and more than 30 pairs of Spoonbills, Platalea leucorodia, the same number of night herons, Nycticorax nycticorax and yellow herons, Ardeola ralloides, several pairs of gray herons, breed on the small island.

HABITATS

Dried or living trees of fig, elm, willow and cane and the remains of maquia, are covering the island. Year in year out it has been extending thanks to drifting of sand on the southern end, overgrowing with reeds.

PROTECTION MEASURES – VULNERABILITY OF HABITATS AND SPECIES

Life on the Paratuk Island thrives thanks to its location, the inaccessibility from the land and the once well-guarded iron curtain between the two countries. The establishment of the navigability at the Bojana River would drive the birds of the island. Their absence would be registered all over delta during the breeding season, because these breeding birds feed on the swamps of Ulcinj and the Salina.