Biebrza National Park

Introducing Biebrza National Park

The Biebrza (byehb-zhah) National Park (Biebrzański Park Narodowy) is Poland’s largest and longest, stretching more than 100km from close to the Belarus border to the Narew River near Tykocin. Established in 1993, it’s a relatively new park but a very important one, protecting the Biebrza Valley, Central Europe’s largest area of natural bog.

The varied landscape consists of river sprawls, peat bogs, marshes and damp forests. Typical local flora includes numerous species of moss, reed grass and a range of medicinal herbs. The fauna is rich and diverse, and features mammals such as wolves, wild boar, foxes, roe deer, otters and beavers. The king of the park, however, is the elk: about half of the country’s population, around 500 animals, live within the park’s borders.

Bird-watchers flock to the Biebrza to glimpse the 270 or so bird species (over half of all species recorded in Poland) that call the park home. Storks, cranes, hawks, curlews, snipe, ruffs, egrets, harriers, crakes, sandpipers, owls, shrikes and at least half a dozen species of warblers are the more ­common varieties, while the great snipe, the white-winged black tern and the aquatic warbler are more rare.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009