Kyzylagach Preserve

(full name, S. M. Kirov Kyzylagach Preserve), a preserve in Lenkoran’ Raion, Azerbaijan SSR, which includes the Kirov Gulf and the northern part of the Malyi Kyzylagach Gulf, as well as their coastal strips. Area, 88,000 hectares (1970). The preserve was established in 1929 to protect the largest migrating grounds of waterfowl in the USSR. During the winter, many coots, ducks, geese, swans, and flamingos are found in the ice-free freshwater coves and shallows of the sea; Dalmatian pelicans are sometimes encountered. Purple gallinules, water rails, and numerous small birds are usually found in the reed thickets. During the summer, large colonies of glossy ibises, squacco herons, American egrets, cattle egrets, purple herons, night herons, and spoonbills nest in tamarisk thickets along the banks of the freshwater Malyi Kyzylagach Gulf. Seagulls, terns, and sandpipers live on the low-lying shores. Black partridges and sometimes pheasants are encountered in the blackberry thickets.