The humid zone of the Saltern of Margherita di Savoia covers an area of almost 4,000 hectares and constitutes the largest maritime salt deposits in Italy. It consists of a great portion of the area that until the first decades of the last century was submerged by the Salpi lake, a coastal basin made of salty and marshy waters and that gave the name to ancient Salarpa. It was here that Emperor Frederic II used to hunt with a falcon while writing down notes on bird watching, a work that has come down to us with the Latin title  "De arte venandi cum avibus”.
This area then became the National Natural Reserve and a Humid zone of international importance according to the Ramsar Convention of 1971, due to the great diversity of the fauna found in it. This humid zone is known for the presence of aquatic birds and for being the nesting grounds of some species one of which is the greater flamingo.