Ujście Warty

Warta Mouth National Park was created in 2001, the most recent of the Polish national parks, in the west of the country, near the German border, where the Warta River flows into the Oder. It protects a broad floodplain that floods seasonally and that constitutes one of the most important wetlands for birds in central Europe.

The landscape is one of wet meadows, marshes, channels, oxbows and shallow sheets of water that change in extent through the year with the level of the river. Management deliberately conserves that flooding regime and keeps the meadows open through extensive grazing and mowing, because the quality of the habitat for the birds depends on it.

Its importance is above all as a gathering area: during migration and over the winter, tens of thousands of ducks and geese assemble here, with very large flocks of greylag goose, white-fronted goose, whooper swan and surface-feeding ducks, as well as waders. In spring and summer a wetland bird community breeds that includes marsh harriers, herons, lapwings and redshanks. The park has hides and observation towers and is a leading destination for birdwatching in Poland.