Dubai from Ras Al Khor

The view from the bird sanctuary towards Dubai is one of the most amazing of a city backdrop. The Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, is located around the 8-mile Dubai Creek watercourse. Home to approximately 270 species of fauna and 47 species of flora, the place has noticed a great deal of change. The sanctuary was founded in 1985 and the Flamingos added charm and grew in number ever-since. Ras Al Khor translates as the ‘Cape of the Creek’ represents an enclave of wilderness amidst traffic and growing urban infrastructure.

The flamingos share the reserve with many other types of bird, including marsh harriers, grey herons, eagles, ringed plovers, avocets, pintails, teal, kingfishers, spoonbills and snipe. They feast on the nutrient-rich waters and eat queen fish and milk fish measuring up to a metre long.

During the winter season visitors get to witness RAKWS support more than 20,000 water birds of 67 species and offers a refuge as a critical staging round for the wintering birds of the East African-West Asian Flyway. The site hosts more than 500 species of flora and fauna and is one of the best-managed arid zone wetlands in the region. RAKWS serves as a place that signifies biodiversity as a life supporting system for humanity’s continual existence and its being an integral part of the cultural and traditional heritage of the U.A.E.The Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary also boasts about different ecosystems from mangroves, mudflats, lagoons and sabkhas to reed beds and shrub lands.