Tahkuna Nature Reserve is a nature reserve situated on

Hiiumaa Hiiumaa (, ) is the second largest island in Estonia and is part of the West Estonian archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. It has an area of 989 km2 and is 22 km from the Estonian mainland. Its largest town is Kärdla. It is located withi ...

in western

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

, in

Hiiu County Hiiu County ( et, Hiiu maakond or ''Hiiumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia, being the smallest county both in terms of area and population. It consists of Hiiumaa (German and sv, Dagö), the second largest island of Estonia, and several s ...

. Tahkuna nature reserve has been created in order to protect areas of forest which have remained largely unaffected by human activity. The nature reserve also incorporates Estonia's largest single habitat of

yew Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus b ...

, dune forests and mires. A forest trail for visitors has been constructed in the nature reserve. The fauna is varied and home to several nesting birds, e.g.

spotted crake The spotted crake (''Porzana porzana'') is a small waterbird of the family Rallidae. The scientific name is derived from Venetian terms for small rails. The spotted crake's breeding habitat is marshes and sedge beds across temperate Europe into ...

and

white-tailed eagle The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla'') is a very large species of sea eagle widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which includes other diurnal rapto ...

. The flora contains several species of orchids;

Corallorhiza trifida ''Corallorhiza trifida'', commonly known as early coralroot, northern coralroot, or yellow coralroot, is a coralroot orchid native to North America and Eurasia, with a circumboreal distribution. The species has been reported from the United Sta ...

and

Goodyera repens ''Goodyera repens'', an orchid in the genus '' Goodyera'', is called by the common name creeping lady's-tresses in Anglophone Europe and dwarf rattlesnake plantain or lesser rattlesnake plantain in North America. It is a green underground creepe ...

are common.

References

{{Nature reserves of Estonia Nature reserves in Estonia Hiiumaa Parish Forests of Estonia Geography of Hiiu County