The large estuarine complex of the Burry Inlet includes extensive areas of intertidal sand and mud-flats and the largest continuous area of salt-marsh in Wales (22 square kilometres).  Burry Inlet regularly supports internationally important numbers of overwintering wildfowl and waders that feed in the saltmarshes and on the intertidal areas.

The Burry Inlet SPA was designated in 1992 for the waders knot, Calidris canutus; oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus; redshank, Tringa totanus; duck pintail, Anas acuta and the whole waterfowl assemblage which also includes the waders dunlin, curlew and grey plover, and the ducks wigeon, shelduck and shoveler.

Summary information provided to the European Commission by the UK is available from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website here and the data sheet here.

The site is also designated as a Ramsar wetland of international importance under the 1971 Convention on Wetlands for the same bird species.  However, the wetland designation also lists as important plant, invertebrate, fish and further bird species.

The Ramsar information sheets for Burry Inlet can be accessed by accessing the Ramsar database here and entering the site name.  Further information on the Ramsar convention and UK Ramsar sites is available here.