Médanos de Coro

Médanos de Coro National Park was established in 1974 in Falcón state, in north-western Venezuela, and protects some 912 km² on the isthmus that joins the Paraguaná peninsula to the mainland.

Its defining feature is its médanos: a field of mobile fine-sand dunes that the trade wind, constant and unidirectional, moves continuously, with crests several metres high. It is one of the few formations of this kind in the Caribbean, and its origin lies in the sediments brought by the rivers and by the sea, dried out and carried inland by the wind in one of the most arid areas of the country.

Around the dunes the landscape is xerophytic scrub with cardón cacti, cují trees and prickly pear, adapted to minimal rainfall and to salinity, and the park also includes coastal lagoons, mangroves and salt flats that host waterbirds and flamingos. Notable among its wildlife is the red siskin, a small red finch endemic to northern Venezuela and critically endangered through capture for the cagebird trade and through hybridisation with canaries. The city of Coro, next to the park, is a cultural World Heritage Site.