Laguna José Ignacio (José Ignacio Lagoon) is a

body of water A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rare ...

located in

Maldonado Department The Maldonado Department (; ), with an area of and 212,951 inhabitants (2023), is located to the southeast of Uruguay. Its capital is Maldonado, Uruguay, Maldonado. Geography Neighbouring departments are Rocha Department, Rocha to the East, Lav ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. A sandbank separates it from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The nearest seaside resort is

José Ignacio José Ignacio may refer to: Places * José Ignacio, Uruguay, a resort (balneario) in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay * Laguna José Ignacio, a body of water located in Maldonado Department, Uruguay People

* José Ignacio (foot ...

Environment

The lagoon is an important

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

location. It has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports significant populations of non-breeding

Chilean flamingo The Chilean flamingo (''Phoenicopterus chilensis'') is a species of large flamingo at a height of closely related to the American flamingo and the greater flamingo, with which it was previously considered a subspecies before being classified ...

s, wintering

Olrog's gull Olrog's gull (''Larus atlanticus'') is a species of gull found along the Atlantic coast of southern Brazil, Uruguay, and northern Argentina. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the very similar ''Belcher's gull, L. belcheri''. It is a larg ...

s, and resident bay-capped wren-spinetails and black-and-white monjitas.

References

External links

Laguna José Ignacio
Jose Ignacio Landforms of Maldonado Department Birdwatching sites in Uruguay Important Bird Areas of Uruguay Lagoons of South America {{Uruguay-lake-stub