Estonia Habitat Guide

Estonia is at the head of the Baltic States. It is also the tiniest of the conglomeration – roughly the size of Switzerland. Russia sits to the east and Latvia to the south. The Baltic Sea laps at the western coast, and the Gulf of Finland lies to the north. Helsinki is only about 80 km across the Gulf of Finland from the Estonian shore. Going down the road 320 km east of Tallinn you’ll land in St. Petersburg.
The country is a plain for the most part. The highest point at Suur Munamägi in the south east at 317 metres yields views of the stretching plains below.

The fourth largest lake in Europe – Lake Peipus (3500 sq km) is a marks the Estonian Russian border.

10% of Estonia’s land mass is in its 1520 islands. The largest two - Saaremaa and Hiiumaa both lie off the western coast.

Almost half of the Estonian landscape is forested and roughly a quarter is wetland – home to the peat bogs some of which go down as deep as 6mts. The major species of trees are firs, pine, birch and aspen. To a lesser degree there are forests of oak, elm, ash and maple.

Estonia’s vast forests are a storehouse of varied flora and fauna - 1470 varieties of indigenous plants and large populations of animals. The forests are home to roe deer, red deer, elks, fox, bear, wild pigs, otters and lynx, mink, badgers, rabbits and hare. Estonian lakes are home to at least 10 species of protected and rare amphibians. There are at least 295 species of birds and of these 60 live in Estonia through the year. Aside from the raptors there are 250 pairs of the golden eagle, white tailed eagle, spotted eagle and eagle owl. Try and look out for the black stork when you travel here and also the unique European flying squirrel.