Hicham Azafzaf, the scientific coordinator of Tunisia's Bird Lovers Association, said he had never seen such dry wetlands in his 20 years of monitoring them.
However, while this summer has been particularly bad, it follows a longer trend that had already had a clear impact on birds.
"There are several species that no longer come to Tunisia in the winter," Azafzaf said. Some 30,000 greater white fronted geese used to winter at Ichkeul National Park west of Tunis each year, but this January only 400-600 came, he added.
Climate change is not the only danger to Tunisia's wetlands, he said. Cities and towns are growing closer to the edges of lagoons and rubble and waste are ever more often dumped in or near the water.
Yet the lagoons and other wetlands are important for human residents too, regulating local temperature during heatwaves and helping avert dangerous floods by absorbing rainfall from sudden storms.
