Wild Formentera: Flamingos, Seagrass and Shearwaters

Formentera’s wild side, from the flamingos of the Ses Salines natural park and the Posidonia seagrass meadows of the UNESCO World Heritage site to the cliffs of Barbaria and La Mola and the Balearic shearwater, with a directory of the places in our guide. Facts from the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Consell de Formentera and UNESCO.

Formentera is small, flat and astonishingly clear-watered, and much of its north is a natural park. Flamingos feed on the salt flats; the turquoise shallows of Ses Illetes lie over meadows of seagrass that UNESCO protects; and on the cliffs of the capes nests a seabird found breeding nowhere else in the world.

This is a short guide: the island is best explored by bicycle on its Green Routes, with a mask for the water and binoculars for the pans.

Ses Salines and the seagrass

The Parc Natural de ses Salines d’Eivissa i Formentera covers the north of Formentera, s’Espalmador and the channel to Ibiza; it became a natural park by law in 2001 and is managed by the Govern de les Illes Balears. Flamingos can be seen almost all year in the salt pans, best at the end of summer and in autumn; the pans themselves are off limits outside organised visits.

The park’s Posidonia meadows are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed in 1999. Under the Balearic Decree 25/2018, uncontrolled anchoring on the Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows is generally prohibited; anchor on sand or use the authorised buoy fields.

Cliffs and capes

The Far de Barbaria presides over a sheer cliff 100 metres above the sea at the southern tip of the island, reached by Green Route 8 from Sant Francesc, 9.6 km; take water, as there is no shade at the cape. In the far east, the Far de la Mola stands on the edge of a cliff 120 metres above the sea, on the La Mola plateau.

The clear turquoise water of Formentera owes much to the seagrass meadows beneath it.

Feature: the Balearic shearwater

The Balearic shearwater is a small, brown-and-white seabird that spends its life over the open sea and comes ashore only to nest, in burrows and caves in the cliffs along the northern coasts of the islands. The Balearics are its only nesting area in the world, and it is listed as Critically Endangered, one of the most threatened seabirds anywhere.

Look for it from boats and headlands, skimming low over the waves; at night near its colonies, keep lights low.

Did you know? The Balearic shearwater nests nowhere in the world but the Balearic Islands.

Our advice

Our advice: cycle the Green Routes in the cooler hours, watch the flamingos from the paths rather than the pans, and snorkel over the seagrass on a calm morning. Anchor only on sand, never on the Posidonia, and never feed wildlife.