Gulf of Fonseca mangroves
The Gulf of Fonseca mangroves are a stretch of brackish mangrove forests around the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific coast, where El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua meet. They cover about 1,554 square kilometers.
The climate is tropical with a dry season. The most common mangroves here are red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) and Rhizophora racemosa, with Avicennia bicolor and black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) also present.
Habitat types include mangrove forests, mudflats, sandy beaches, and rocky shores, mainly lining the lagoons, bays, and flat lowlands.
The Gulf of Fonseca is one of two main nesting sites for hawksbill sea turtles in the eastern Pacific.
Conservation and birds: In Honduras, seven nature reserves form a Ramsar wetland of international importance to protect migratory birds, sea turtles, and fish. The area, together with La Unión Bay in El Salvador and the Estero Real Delta and Apacunca Plains in Nicaragua, is an Important Bird Area (IBA) designated by BirdLife International, supporting many bird species such as reddish egret, red knot, semipalmated sandpiper, elegant tern, Pacific screech-owl, Hoffmann’s woodpecker, orange-fronted parakeet, Nutting’s flycatcher, white-throated magpie-jay, and banded wren.
Protected areas include reserves along Chismuyo Bay, San Lorenzo Bay, Las Iguanas and Punta Condega, Jicarito, and San Bernardo.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:23 (CET).