Inland wetlands — Fuente de Piedra, Campillos, Medina and Padul

• Lagoon (laguna) — here, a shallow inland lake, often salty, that can shrink or fill with the rain.
• Anatidae — the duck family: shelduck, pochard and the rest of the waterfowl you see on a hide list.
• Salinas — working or old salt pans. Birds use the shallow water.

Fuente de Piedra is the largest remaining salt lagoon in Andalusia and the flamingo place within reach of Malaga. In a wet year the water holds a breeding colony; you watch from hides and the visitor centre, not from the shoreline among the nests. Gull-billed tern, slender-billed gull, shelduck and red-crested pochard use the same basin.

A few kilometres on, the Campillos lagoons are smaller and often seasonal. They fill after rain and empty in a hard summer. That is why the bird list changes from month to month. Walk the signed trails; do not cut across the dry crust.

• Fuente de Piedra lagoon — map
• Flamingo area — map
• Campillos lagoons — map

These two are the big western wetlands, not an add-on after Fuente de Piedra. The Marismas del Odiel, next to Huelva city, are estuary and salt pan. Flamingos feed on the salinas. The visitor centre Anastasio Senra and the hides on Isla de Enmedio are the practical start. Imperial eagles are possible over the hills behind; they are not the bird you come to count on the salt.

Doñana covers marsh, dune and woodland across Huelva, Seville and Cadiz. Access to the heart of the park is limited. Use El Acebuche, La Rocina or the Jose Antonio Valverde centre, and book a tour if you want the inner tracks. Lynx live here; you may not see one. The honest draw is the scale of the marsh and the winter birds.

• Anastasio Senra visitor centre — map
• Odiel salt pans — map
• El Acebuche — map
• La Rocina — map
• Jose Antonio Valverde centre — map

South of Jerez, Laguna de Medina is a freshwater basin used by white-headed duck, purple swamphen (the old name is purple gallinule) and, in some years, red-knobbed coot. In winter the water can hold thousands of coots, plus flamingos and diving ducks. There is a visitor point and a short trail. It pairs with a Jerez day, not with Fuente de Piedra.

• Laguna de Medina — map

Padul sits under Sierra Nevada, on the Granada side. It is peat and reed, not salt. The bird list is heron, duck and the usual wetland passerines. The extra story is underground: mammoth remains came out of this basin, and the eco-museum explains that layer. A boardwalk around the lagoon is the visit. Combine it with Granada or the Alpujarra, not with Huelva.

• Laguna del Padul — map
• Eco-museum — map