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This reserve is a protected natural area established in 1978. It covers an area of 25 acres in the province of Novara and in the province of Vercelli.

In 1972, the reserve was populated by a few hundred pairs of black-crowned night heron and some egrets, so much so that in the winter of the following year the Italian Society of Photographic Hunting built a tower suitable for filming the local avifauna.
In 1974, some 300 bird nests were counted. From 1975 onward, probably as a result of disturbances, the nesting colony grew smaller and smaller, until the heronry was definitively abandoned in 1978; in the same year, the photographic tower was dismantled.

Today, Garzaia di Villaboit reserve features some peculiar flower species which can grow on the different substrate and also thanks to the more mature woodland formations. In fact, Turkey oaks (Quercus cerris), a rare Mediterranean species in the Po River Valley, Rosa gallica, Serratula tinctoria, Luzula multiflora, and Molinia arundinacea thrive all over the reserve; in addition, there are Carpinus betulus, Narcissus poeticus, the rare Epimedium alpinum, Euphorbia dulcis and Drypteris dilatata.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)