The park is named after a large colony of bee-eaters (gruccioni), birds with beautiful plumage that have nested along the River Po in recent years.

The protected area was established in 2004 and extends over 388 hectares of alluvial areas and fluvial islands such as the Isola Schiavi and Isola Bianchi. This is the landscape characteristic of the middle course of the River Po: extensive poplar woods, lakes in disused quarries abandoned to nature, natural formations of white willow, sandbanks and oxbow lakes.