Matsalu National Park
protected area in Estonia
Matsalu National Park (previously Matsalu Nature Reserve, Estonian: Matsalu rahvuspark, often just Matsalu) is a nature reserve and national park in the Lääne and Pärnu counties of Estonia. Matsalu National Park spans an area of 486.1 km2 (187.7 sq mi), comprising Matsalu Bay, the Kasari River delta, the village of Matsalu and surrounding areas.
Matsalu Bay is one of the most important wetland bird areas in Europe, due to its prime position on the East Atlantic Flyway. Large numbers of migratory birds use Matsalu as a staging area. Every spring over two million waterfowl pass Matsalu, of which around 1.6 million are long-tailed duck.
Matsalu National Park is a home for a number of endangered species, many of which are listed in the Estonian IUCN Red List, including white-tailed eagle in the highest conservation category, lots of bird species in the second and third protection categories, 22 strongly protected plant species, natterjack toad and ten species of mammal in the second conservation category.
Description
Matsalu National Park has an area of 486.1 km2 (187.7 sq mi), encompassing Matsalu Bay along with the delta of the Kasari River and its surrounding areas — floodplains, coastal meadows, reedbeds, woodlands, wooded meadows and the section of Väinameri around the mouth of the bay, which includes more than 50 islands. 224.3 km2 (86.6 sq mi) of the protected area is terrestrial and 261.8 km2 (101.1 sq mi) is aquatic. Matsalu Bay is shallow, brackish and rich in nutrients. The bay is 18 km (11.2 mi) long and 6 km (3.7 mi) wide, but has an average depth of only 1.5 metres (5 ft) and a maximum depth of 3.5 m (11 ft).
The public source identifies “Matsalu National Park” as protected area in Estonia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Matsalu, National and Park.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1540273. VIAF identifies the subject as 311239666. Authority coordinates are 58.760, 23.597. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Matsalu National Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.