Important Bird Areas, or IBAs, provide essential habitat for birds. The National Audubon Society identifies Important Bird Areas across the United States as part of the Society’s work to conserve critical sites for bird conservation.

Summary

Important Bird Areas provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird, including sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. IBAs may be a few acres or thousands of acres. IBAs may include public or private lands, or both, and they may be protected or unprotected. To be designated, an IBA must meet at least one of several objective criteria.

Once designated, the National Audubon Society works with partner organizations, including its local chapters, to develop and implement IBA conservation plans. Plan activities vary from IBA to IBA and can include bird monitoring, habitat restoration, land protection, and proposing changes to municipal land use policies.

IBA designation does not confer regulatory or other protection to the identified area. It simply recognizes an area as having outstanding value to bird conservation. Designations help conservation organizations and governments to better prioritize their conservation activities.

Track Record

The Important Bird Area program has been in use since the 1980s and has been established in over 200 countries and 10,000 designated sites. The program started in the U.S. during the mid-1990’s when Pennsylvania became the first state to designate IBAs. As of April 2009, Pennsylvania has 85 designated IBAs. Audubon and its partners have used the IBA designation to leverage support of additional land conservation, habitat protection and scientific research.

Typical End Users

National Audubon Society (through its state office, Audubon Pennsylvania) designates Important Bird Areas.
Any individual or group can nominate an IBA or serve as a stewardship adoption group to implement conservation projects in IBAs.
Non-profit organizations can use the designation to advance conservation planning and implementation.
Local or county governments can use the designation as a component of their natural resource management plans and use open space funding to implement protection of IBAs.

Conservation Impact

Public designation and recognition by an international conservation program adds credibility to conservation efforts.
Conservation planning utility for local, county and state governments.

What You'll Need

Data to support claims that the site meets Pennsylvania IBA criteria.
Preferably, a group with a commitment to help steward the site into the future.

Obstacles and Challenges

In designating an IBA, the largest challenge is gathering and organizing the data and ensuring that the site meets the criteria.
In conserving an IBA, the challenges are varied, including protecting private lands, and improving land management and land use planning on public and private lands.

Contents of Main Description

Background
Nomination
Implementation
History

Background

The Important Bird Area (IBA) program was started by BirdLife International in the 1980’s to help answer a pivotal question for bird conservationists: How can nonprofits and governments be expected to protect bird species and populations if they don’t know where the most critical sites for bird conservation are? The IBA program was designed to help groups of all kinds in prioritizing their conservation efforts and focusing their limited resources on the most vital sites.

There are no legal or regulatory restrictions associated with IBA designation, so it is not appropriate to seek IBA status as a means of seeking governmental approvals or stopping a proposed development. IBAs may contain public or private land, be protected or unprotected, large or small; the common thread among all IBAs is that they are vital to at least one bird species during some portion of their annual life cycle. In the United States, each state IBA program develops its own criteria for IBA status, working within a general framework laid out by BirdLife International. In Pennsylvania these criteria were developed by the Ornithological Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, the same committee that now evaluates site nominations. See discussion of criteria in “Nomination” section below.

Once an IBA is designated, Audubon may work with local partner organizations, municipal governments or interested individuals towards the conservation of the site. Typically, Audubon will undertake conservation planning activities to inventory and prioritize the conservation actions needed on-site. See “Implementation” below for more details.

Nomination

The first step towards nominating a site as an Important Bird Area is to contact the Audubon Pennsylvania regional Important Bird Area Coordinator (listed in contacts below). The IBA coordinator will want to find out about any existing data sets on bird populations in the proposed area and should be able to provide an initial indication on whether or not it is feasible to pursue IBA designation for the site.

If the site holds promise as a potential IBA, the IBA coordinator may help you organize additional surveys of the land in order to fill in important gaps in existing data sets and give a more complete picture of the site throughout the year, focusing on documenting that the site meets one or more of the IBA criterion listed below.

IBAs in Pennsylvania must meet at least one of the following criteria:

Any site having exceptional concentration or diversity of birdlife, defined as:
- The site regularly supports at least 2,000 waterfowl (at one time) during some part of the year (excludes resident Canada Geese and Mallards).The site regularly supports at least 100 shore birds (at one time) during some part of the year.
- The site regularly supports at least 50 pairs of wading birds during the breeding season.
- The site is a “bottleneck” for at least 10,000 raptors (seasonal total) during spring or fall migration.
- The site is recognized within Pennsylvania as having an exceptional concentration and/or diversity of birdlife. (e.g. migrant “traps” for landbirds)
Sites with a significant population of state or federally-listed endangered or threatened species. Sites should be those where the species occurs with regularity, not areas of infrequent occurrence.
Sites supporting a significant population of one or more species on Pennsylvania’s “special concern” list. This includes species listed in Pennsylvania as Candidate-At Risk, Candidate-Rare, Candidate-Undetermined, and species listed in the state Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (a.k.a. State Wildlife Action Plan).
Sites containing representative, rare, threatened or unique habitats, with birds characteristic of those habitats. Sites fall into one of the two following categories:
- rare, threatened, or unusual within the state or region.
- an exceptional representative of a characteristic natural or near-natural habitat within its physiographic province. (This category is mainly meant to cover relatively large areas capable of supporting significant bird populations, especially of species with particular habitat requirements such as grassland or primary forest-nesting birds (for example, Henslow’s and Grasshopper Sparrow, or Cerulean Warbler).
The site is a natural area where a long-term research and/or monitoring project is based that contributes substantially to ornithology and bird conservation. Often these sites will have a long record of bird data that has led to frequent publications in ornithological journals.

Many IBAs meet multiple criteria, or host several listed species. While there is no specified size limit for IBAs, sites generally must be large enough to support a substantial population of the noted species during the appropriate season of the year. Sites should be distinguishable from the surrounding landscape; IBA boundaries may follow natural boundaries (watersheds, ridges, etc.) or man-made boundaries (roads, property lines).

Implementation

Once an IBA is designated and a conservation plan developed for the site, the implementation of this plan can take many shapes depending on the documented needs, capacity of partner organizations and timing of potential threats.

Monitoring of bird populations, accomplished primarily through the use of volunteers from local Audubon chapters and bird clubs, should be part of the IBA implementation strategy at all sites. These bird data will be at the core of all future decisions made regarding the site, even those with no foreseeable threats. Long-term bird monitoring data is useful for evaluating changes in management, documenting habitat conditions and providing information that may be used in evaluating development plans.

Often Audubon and its partner organizations will utilize other tools described elsewhere on this site to accomplish its conservation objectives within IBAs. These tools include land protection by conservation easement, land acquisition in fee-simple, municipal land use and zoning ordinances, and best management practices for various habitat types (e.g. sustainable forestry techniques).

History

The IBA program was started by BirdLife International in Europe in the 1980's. BirdLife International is a global coalition of partner organizations in over 100 countries. The National Audubon Society is the U.S. Partner Designate of BirdLife International and administers the IBA program in the United States.

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