page_title: Flora and fauna of the Outer Hebrides
section_title: South Uist Nature Reserve
hierarchical_section_title: Flora and fauna of the Outer Hebrides / Nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest / South Uist Nature Reserve
caption_attribution_description: English: Flowering machair, Hills of South Uist, Outer Hebrides.
context_page_description: The flora and fauna of the Outer Hebrides in north west Scotland comprises a unique and diverse ecosystem. A long archipelago, set on the eastern shores of the Atlantic Ocean, it attracts a wide variety of seabirds, and thanks to the Gulf Stream a climate more mild than might be expected at this latitude. Because it is on the Gulf Stream, it also occasionally gets exotic visitors.
context_section_description: Loch Druidibeg in the north of the island is a national nature reserve owned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. The reserve covers 1,677 hectares of machair, bog, freshwater lochs, estuary heather moorland and hill.  Over 200 species of flowering plants have been recorded on the reserve, some of which are nationally scarce. South Uist is considered the best place in the UK for the aquatic plant slender naiad (Najas flexilis) which is a European Protected Species.
  Nationally important populations of breeding waders are also present, including redshank, dunlin, lapwing and ringed plover. The reserve is also home to greylag geese on the loch and in summer corncrakes on the machair. Otters and hen harriers are also seen.
caption: Flowering machair on South Uist
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