Fuente de Piedra Lagoon

Fuente de Piedra is a shallow endorheic lagoon, meaning it has no outlet and loses water only by evaporation, which leaves it saline and makes it dry out almost completely in a hot summer. It covers about thirteen square kilometres, an ellipse some 6.8 by 2.5 kilometres, and is less than a metre deep even in a good year. That salinity supports the brine shrimp that flamingos feed on, and the lagoon holds the largest greater flamingo breeding colony in the Iberian peninsula and one of the two most important in the Mediterranean, with tens of thousands of birds in a good year. Breeding depends entirely on winter rainfall: in dry years the colony fails or does not form, and in April 2023 drought turned the lake into a salt pan and the flamingos left early. A visitor centre, hides and a marked path around part of the shore allow watching without disturbance, and other species including cranes, avocets and stilts use the site.

What you'll find

• The flamingo colony - tens of thousands of birds in a wet year.
• The saline shallows - a lake with no outlet, drying through summer.
• The observation hides - screened viewpoints along the shore path.
• The other waterbirds - cranes, avocets, stilts and gulls on the margins.

When to go

February to June, when the birds arrive, breed and raise chicks; numbers peak in spring. By late summer the lagoon may be dry and empty. Rainfall in the preceding winter determines whether breeding happens at all.

Before you go

In drought years the lagoon can be bare salt flat with no flamingos at all, which happens increasingly. The birds are distant and binoculars or a scope are essential. Access to the shore itself is restricted to protect the colony.

Nearby

Antequera and its dolmens lie southeast; El Torcal is beyond them.

Key facts