The Espiche River () is a small river in the south central region of the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

which rises a little south east of the village of

Algoz Algoz () is a town and the seat of the civil parish of Algoz e Tunes in the municipality of Silves, in Algarve, Portugal. It has about 3000 inhabitants. History According to some theories, the name of the town has its origins in the Arabic wor ...

. It runs south towards the south coast, and its mouth is at the Praia dos Salgados between Armação de Pêra and

Albufeira Albufeira (, ), officially the City of Albufeira (), is a List of cities in Portugal, city and Concelho, municipality of Faro District in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2021 was 44,158, in an area of . The city proper ...

Description

The river runs for a length of from its spring to the mouth at Salgados.

Salgados Lagoon

Behind the beach is an area of wetland called the Salgados Lagoon which is fed by the waters of the river. It is a shallow salt marsh which was restored and is now an important wildlife habitat for the area. The east banks of the lagoon have been transformed into a golf course. Whilst the west bank behind the sand bar has been conserved as a large wetland which has become an excellent habitat for a large variety of water fowl and has become an important stopping point for thousands of migrating birds. The lagoon has been classified as an IBA (Important Bird Area). It has been estimated that Salgados has upwards of 5,000 water fowl of 60 different species. These species include Purple gallinule,

Purple heron The purple heron (''Ardea purpurea'') is a wide-ranging heron species. It breeds in Africa, central and southern Europe, and southern and eastern Palearctic. The Western Palearctic populations migrate between breeding and wintering habitats whe ...

and is a nesting site for the

Ferruginous duck The ferruginous duck (''Aythya nyroca''), also known as ferruginous pochard, common white-eye or white-eyed pochard, is a medium-sized diving duck from Eurosiberia. The scientific name is derived from the Ancient Greek word, (), an unknown se ...

Zoomarine

Further up stream from the coast the river passes around the western perimeter of the visitor attraction called the ''Zoomarine'' theme park and crosses under the

N125 N1, N.I, N-1, N=1, or N01 may refer to: Information technology * Nokia N1, an Android tablet * Nexus One, an Android phone made by HTC * Nylas N1, a desktop email client * Oppo N1, an Android phone * N1, a Sun Microsystems software brand now mo ...

principal east to west coast road.

References

Rivers of Portugal Rivers of the Algarve {{Portugal-river-stub