Beyond the well-known beaches, the Montenegrin coast has a quieter side: marshes, salt pans and coves where birds winter, nest and rest on migration. Most of it is in the south, around Ulcinj and the Bojana delta, but Tivat Solila on the way to Luštica is worth a stop too. Since 2021 Montenegro also has its first marine protected areas: Platamuni, Katič and Stari Ulcinj.
Ulcinj Salina, the Bojana delta with Ada and Lake Šas, Tivat Solila, Valdanos and the Platamuni and Katič marine parks: where to watch birds and see a protected sea on the Montenegrin coast.
A salt works turned nature park
A few kilometres from the centre of Ulcinj lies Ulcinj Salina, about 15 square kilometres of pans built on a former natural lagoon in the Bojana delta. Salt was produced here from 1934 to 2013, and the shallow saltwater pans became one of the most important bird habitats on the eastern Adriatic coast. Around 250 species have been recorded, roughly 70 percent of all bird species in Montenegro. Flamingos are the best known, and the salina is the country's only breeding site of the black-winged stilt. It was declared a nature park in June 2019 and added to the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance that September.
The Bojana delta and Lake Šas
The Bojana river flows out of Lake Skadar and reaches the sea at Ada Bojana. Ada is a triangular island between two arms of the river and the sea, with about three kilometres of sandy beach, and the river banks are lined with reeds, shallows and fishermen's huts on stilts. To the north, Velika plaža runs 13 kilometres to the river mouth. Inland, about ten kilometres from the coast, Lake Šas lies below the ruins of the medieval town of Svač. Both the Bojana delta and Lake Šas are Important Bird Areas (IBA).
Pelicans live on Lake Skadar
The Dalmatian pelican sometimes turns up at the salina, but in Montenegro it breeds on Lake Skadar, in the Pančeva oka reserve. Nesting rafts were placed there in 2013, and the pelicans started nesting on them the following year. One census counted 165 adult birds and at least 32 young. The lake has been a national park since 1983 and a Ramsar site since 1995, with about 280 bird species recorded. Birdwatching is organised by the national park, booked one day ahead.
Did you know?
In Montenegro the Dalmatian pelican nests not on the sea but on Lake Skadar: since 2013 it has bred in the Pančeva oka reserve on rafts placed there just for it.
Solila, Luštica and Valdanos
Near Tivat, on the road to Luštica, Tivat Solila covers about 150 hectares of salt meadows and shallows and has been on the Ramsar list since 2013. Entry is free, and birds are watched from two observation towers. On Luštica itself, pine forest runs down to Plavi Horizonti beach, and an old stone path leads from Radovići through olive groves to Žanjice. In the south, near Ulcinj, Valdanos cove is a nature monument surrounded by an olive grove of about 18,000 trees.
The first marine parks
In 2021 Montenegro got its first marine protected area, Platamuni between Budva and Petrovac, about 1,087 hectares with meadows of Posidonia seagrass. Katič near Petrovac was declared the same year; at 2,744 hectares it is the country's largest marine protected area and includes the islets of Katič and Sveta Neđelja. Stari Ulcinj followed in early 2022. These places are best seen with a mask and snorkel or with a local dive centre.
