Important Birding Areas
Important Bird Areas
The Important Bird Areas Program (IBA) is a global effort to identify and conserve areas that are vital to birds and other biodiversity. The IBA program was initiated by BirdLife International in Europe in the 1980s. The American Bird Conservancy developed a program to identify globally important sites and, as the U.S. partner for Birdlife International, the National Audubon Society began their effort to identify significant state-sites in the United States. Both organizations launched their programs in 1995.
IBAs are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird. IBAs include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. IBAs may be a few acres or thousands of acres, but usually they are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. IBAs may include public or private lands, or both, and they may be protected or unprotected. The selection of IBAs has been a particularly effective way of identifying conservation priorities. They do one (or more) of three things:
- Hold significant numbers of one or more globally threatened species
- Are one of a set of sites that together hold a suite of restricted-range species or biome-restricted species
- Have exceptionally large numbers of migratory or congregatory species
A site is recognised as an IBA only if it meets certain criteria, based on the occurrence of key bird species that are vulnerable to global extinction or whose populations are otherwise irreplaceable. An IBA must be amenable to conservation action and management.
The IBA criteria are internationally agreed, standardised, quantitative and scientifically defensible. Ideally, each IBA should be large enough to support self-sustaining populations of as many as possible of the key bird species for which it was identified or, in the case of migrants, fulfil their requirements for the duration of their presence. By definition, an IBA is an internationally agreed priority for conservation action.
In the United States, IBA Programs in forty-six states have successfully identified hundreds of Important Bird Areas, furthered the protection of tens of thousand acres of habitat, improved management practices on thousands more, and raised public awareness about the value of habitat for birds and other wildlife. IBA programs should be underway in all 50 states in the near future.
Click on the state or province to link-up to the most recent IBA information.
United States
- Alabama Important Bird Areas
- Alaska Important Bird Areas
- Arizona Important Bird Areas
- Arkansas Important Bird Areas
- California Important Bird Areas
- Colorado Important Bird Areas
- Connecticut Important Bird Areas
- Delaware Important Bird Areas
- District of Columbia Important Bird Areas
- Florida Important Bird Areas
- Georgia Important Bird Areas
- Hawaii Important Bird Areas
- Idaho Important Bird Areas
- Illinois Important Bird Areas
- Indiana Important Bird Areas
- Iowa Important Bird Areas
- Kansas Important Bird Areas
- Kentucky Important Bird Areas
- Louisiana Important Bird Areas
- Maine Important Bird Areas
- Maryland Important Bird Areas
- Massachusetts Important Bird Areas
- Michigan Important Bird Areas
- Minnesota Important Bird Areas
- Mississippi Important Bird Areas
- Missouri Important Bird Areas
- Montana Important Bird Areas
- Nebraska Important Bird Areas
- Nevada Important Bird Areas
- Hampshire Important Bird Areas
- New Jersey Important Bird Areas
- New Mexico Important Bird Areas
- New York Important Bird Areas
- North Carolina Important Bird Areas
- North Dakota Important Bird Areas
- Ohio Important Bird Areas
- Oklahoma Important Bird Areas
- Oregon Important Bird Areas
- Pennsylvania Important Bird Areas
- Rhode Island Important Bird Areas
- South Carolina Important Bird Areas
- South Dakota Important Bird Areas
- Tennessee Important Bird Areas
- Texas Important Bird Areas
- Utah Important Bird Areas
- Vermont Important Bird Areas
- Virginia Important Bird Areas
- Washington Important Bird Areas
- West Virginia Important Bird Areas
- Wisconsin Important Bird Areas
- Wyoming Important Bird Areas
Canada
- Alberta Important Bird Areas
- British Columbia Important Bird Areas
- Manitoba Important Bird Areas
- New Brunswick Important Bird Areas
- Newfoundland Important Bird Areas
- Northwest Territories Important Bird Areas
- Nova Scotia Important Bird Areas
- Nunavu Important Bird Areast
- Ontario Important Bird Areas
- Prince Important Bird Areas
- Edward Island Important Bird Areas
- Quebec Important Bird Areas
- Saskatchewan Important Bird Areas
- Yukon Important Bird Areas
