The proposed SPA (Special Protection Area) includes Sparviero Islet, Burano Islet, and two satellite islets of Argentario: Argentarola and Porto Ercole Islets.
During the winter, Burano Islet is used as a roosting site by a significant population of the common cormorant that frequents the coastal wetlands of southern Tuscany and upper Lazio. Porto Ercole and Argentarola Islets have significant potential for the nesting of the Scopoli’s shearwater (nesting on Argentarola) and the Yelkouan shearwater, which nested there in the 1990s. Sparviero Islet hosts, outside the breeding season, a regular presence of a roost of the European shag (up to 50 individuals) and a winter roost of the common cormorant (approximately 160 individuals); both species feed in the adjacent coastal areas. Moreover, 2-3 pairs of Falco peregrinus regularly nest on the islets while a morphologically distinct form of common wall lizard is present on Argentarola Islet.
