Habitats | Enjoy the Broads

Javascript is turned off

This site uses Javascript to enhance the way it works. If you have Javascript turned off, some features may not look or function 100% as we would wish. We hope you will still enjoy this site.

See the Broads

A boat trip on the Electric Eel, an electric powered wildlife watching boat.

Habitats

The Broads is one of Europe's finest and most important wetlands for nature conservation. As well as its national park status it has many Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), National Nature Reserves and a growing number of Local Nature Reserves. Virtually all the SSSI network is also designated as internationally important for nature conservation under the European Habitats and Birds directives and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

Broads

There are more than 60 broads which range from small, isolated lakes to huge expanses of water. Formed in medieval times when peat was dug to use as fuel, they became flooded as water levels rose over the centuries and are now home to all sorts of wildlife
Estuaries

Breydon Water is Britain’s most easterly estuary. Lying at the junction of the northern and southern broads, it acts as a staging post for migratory birds. Nationally important wintering flocks of wigeon and shelduck, and an internationally important flock of Bewicks swans have been recorded.
Fen

The Broads fens are boggy areas of peatland that appear to be dominated by reeds, rushes and sedges, but in fact support more than 250 different plant species, including the rare fen orchid. Britains largest butterfly, the swallowtail, and the rare Norfolk hawker dragonfly, can also often be seen here along with thousands of species of mini-beasts.
Carr woodland

When a peat fen is left unmanaged small shrubs and trees start to grow, leading to the natural creation of carr woodland. This damp, shaded wilderness is an incredibly rare habitat, giving a home to many plants, invertebrates and birds including willow tits and long-tailed tits, greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers and treecreepers.
Grazing marshes

The Broads grazing marshes represent a considerable wildlife resource, as well as traditional marsh cattle grazing. Marshes support internationally important populations of wintering waterfowl, aquatic plants that have been lost from the broads themselves and nationally important populations of breeding waders.