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Ponta Branca
Protected Area for the Management of Habitats or Species
Gallery
This protected area has 101.52 hectares and locates on the southeast coast of Graciosa island.
Ponta Branca is mainly formed by coastal sea-cliffs of particular geological materials, dominated by natural and semi-natural covers of these sea-cliffs, in an area with coastal ridges of difficult access.
In this habitat, we find seabirds’ colonies, of which stands out the Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris borealis) and the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), and examples of the Azorean endemic flora, such as the Corema album subsp. Azoricum, the Erica azorica, the Festuca petraea, the Hypericum foliosum and the Ammi trifoliatum.
This protected area integrates the Ponta Branca Special Area of Conservation (SAC) within the Natura 2000 network, as well as the Serra Branca Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA), of the BirdLife International organization/SPEA (Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds), and of Nucleus Zone of the Biosphere Reserve.