Marchica lagoon, the Moulouya mouth and the Mohammed V reservoir — the Mediterranean east in winter
Greater flamingo (almost year-round), shelduck, wigeon, pochard (up to 900), red-breasted merganser, black-necked grebe; common crane (up to 480) and marbled teal at the reservoir; breeding avocet, stilt, little tern; bittern booming at the Moulouya in May. Nador and Berkane provinces, Oriental (Mediterranean coast), Morocco.
Best time: 1 Dec – 15 Feb (December to February). Where: Marchica lagoon — Atalayoun shore and ornithological park, Embouchure de la Moulouya, Barrage Mohammed V (Morocco). Time of day: Dawn on the lagoon before the fishing boats.
- You can go on your own
- Free
- Binoculars essential
- Sound 3/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 1 Dec – 15 Feb. December to mid February — the reservoir holds over 25,000 wintering waterbirds and the lagoon its shelduck, wigeon and merganser flocks; flamingos stay most of the year
Active from 15 Oct to 31 Mar (October to March) in a typical year.
Time of day
Dawn on the lagoon before the fishing boats; late afternoon at the Moulouya mouth for gulls and terns coming to roost; cranes fly to the reservoir shore at dusk
- Lagoon dawn: first light → 2 h after sunrise
- Evening roost flights: 90 min before sunset → last light
What will you hear?
Flamingo honking across a lagoon the size of a city, wigeon whistling, shelduck, the bugling of common cranes at the Mohammed V shore at dusk, and in spring a booming bittern and avocet colony clamour at the Moulouya mouth. Nador's traffic and the fishermen's outboards are the backdrop; the Moulouya is quieter.
Binoculars?
Binoculars essential. Marchica is 14,000 ha — ducks are often 500 m+ out; a scope is the tool. Flamingos and waders at the Moulouya mouth are closer.
Where to go
- Marchica lagoon — Atalayoun shore and ornithological park — GREPOM's floating tern rafts and artificial flamingo nests are here; lagoon-side road from Nador towards Beni Ensar. Fishermen's cooperative trained by GREPOM for birdwatching boat trips. Map
- Embouchure de la Moulouya — Ramsar river mouth between Saïdia and Ras el Ma (Cap de l'Eau): reedbeds, lagoon and beach; avocet colony, bittern, passage waders. Track from the Saïdia road. Map
- Barrage Mohammed V — Large reservoir on the Moulouya 60 km inland: Ramsar site with over 25,000 wintering waterbirds, cranes, marbled teal and ruddy shelduck; the dam road and the northern shore are the viewpoints. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Nador has an airport and trains; the lagoon shore road and the ornithological park are public. Saïdia (bus or taxi from Berkane/Oujda) for the Moulouya mouth — walk or 4x4 along the beach west of the resort. The Mohammed V dam is on the N19/R610 from Taourirt or Nador; public road along the dam.
Cost: Free (2026). Fishermen's birdwatching boat trips on Marchica are priced locally — ask the cooperative or GREPOM; check current prices.
Who runs access
- Marchica fishermen's cooperative (GREPOM-trained birdwatching trips) (community project) — Ecotourism boat trips set up by GREPOM/BirdLife with the fishermen.
Field-recording notes
Marchica is bordered by Nador, a port, the Beni Ensar–Melilla border zone and a new resort — a loud, patrolled lagoon; do not point long lenses at the port or the border and keep to the public shore and the ornithological park. The Moulouya mouth is the quiet option: dunes, reeds, a few fishermen; night access along the beach is fine. Winter hunting happens around the reservoir and the Moulouya plain — expect dawn shots at weekends. Reeds at the Moulouya give the best bittern/avocet recording in May. No drones (Morocco); no playback.
Sources
- BirdLife (2023) – Supporting conservation and livelihoods in Morocco: Marchica lagoon, GREPOM's rafts and ecotourism
- KBA factsheet – Barrage Mohamed V (marbled duck, cranes up to 480, pochard, flamingos)
- GREPOM Go-South – Moroccan ornithology bulletin (Moulouya records)
Similar spectacles
Flamingo colonies & courtshipGoose-like gabbling of big flocks, and the synchronised 'marching' displays with a constant honking.
Diawling floodplain — pelicans, flamingos and Palearctic ducksPelican flotillas grunting, garganey and pintail flocks whirring off the flooded basins, flamingo chorus, and the low background of the Diama dam and the Senegal river.
Tagus estuary in winter: flamingos, avocets and 100,000 waterbirdsFlamingo flocks honking as they move between the estuary and the Lezíria rice fields, avocet and godwit roosts chattering on the salinas at high tide, teal whistling on the lagoons and the great winter silence of the open marsh broken by hunters' shots outside the reserve.
Somone lagoon — pelicans, flamingos and the sandbank roost on the Petite CôtePelican wings and bill-clapping as the flock lands, tern and gull roost clamour, flamingo honks, spoonbills and herons in the mangrove, osprey whistles — small-scale next to the Saloum but the closest proper lagoon roost to the Saly resorts, and quiet at dawn before the jet-skis.
Flamingo colonies of the CamargueGoose-like honking from thousands of birds, the massed 'marching' displays, and flights of hundreds passing low over the étangs at dusk.
Saharan lagoons — Khnifiss and Dakhla Bay in winterFlamingo honking in the hundreds across a lagoon with no other sound at all, wader flocks lifting, the rattle of royal and Caspian terns, and on Dakhla Bay the blow of a humpback dolphin close to shore.
More: all spectacles in Morocco · flamingos · winter geese, swans and ducks · Morocco in January · Morocco in February · Morocco in December