Lake Ormož

Lake Ormoz is a reservoir on the Drava River straddling the border of northeastern Slovenia and northwestern Croatia, covering about 3 square kilometres and named for the Slovenian town of Ormoz on its northern bank. Built in 1975, while both countries were still part of Yugoslavia, to supply the Varazdin hydroelectric plant, its Slovenian shoreline was protected as a nature reserve in 1992 for its importance to birds, and the adjoining Ormoz basins, retention ponds that turned to marsh after a nearby sugar refinery closed, gained national-level nature reserve status in 2017. As many as 261 bird species have been recorded there, including rare migrants such as the little bittern and ferruginous duck.