• el Hamzaoui, Mustapha
  The Graduate School University of Maine
  

The complex geological history of Morocco has resulted in the remarkable diversity of landscapes and ecosystems that occur there. Morocco, which lies at the southwestern corner of the western Palaearctic and forms the northwest corner of Africa contains avifauna that originates in two faunal zones (Blondel and Blondel 1964) . Wetlands are a prominent feature of the Moroccan Atlantic coast. The most important are the Merja-Zerga, Sidi-Bourhaba, Khnifiss Lagoon, and Souss-Massa estuaries. They are of extraordinary importance as wintering, moulting, feeding and roosting sites for great numbers of waders and waterfowl moving between their breeding grounds in northern Europe and wintering areas in tropical west Africa.