What is an IBA?

Important Bird Areas are sites that provide essential habitat to one or more species of birds during some portion of the year (nesting areas, crucial migration stop-over sites, or wintering grounds). IBAs may be a few or even thousands of acres, but usually are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. IBAs may include public or private lands, or both, and may or may not already be protected.

The Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is an international program of BirdLife International that has been in place since the mid-1980s. As the United States partner of BirdLife International, the National Audubon Society administers the IBA Program in the United States, in coordination with local entities. There are more than 13,000 IBAs in more than 200 countries across the world. To date, more than 2,700 IBAs have been identified in the United States, encompassing more than 400 million acres of public and private lands.

You can browse a map of all IBAs or learn about IBAs specific to Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Audubon Rockies oversees the IBA program in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.

Goals of the IBA Program

Identify the most essential areas for birds.
Monitor those sites for changes to birds and habitat.
Conserve these areas for long-term protection of biodiversity.

A Global Currency for Bird Conservation

Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are exactly what their name implies: places or habitats that are essential for bird populations. The goal of the IBA program is to conserve birds by identifying, monitoring, and protecting critical bird habitats. Because habitat loss is the most serious threat facing bird species across North America and around the world, Audubon’s IBA program is a site-based initiative to address habitat loss through community-supported conservation.

Science-based Conservation

IBAs are designated and ranked against a rigorous set of scientific criteria, set and interpreted by local and then national committees of leading bird experts convened by Audubon. IBAs may be a few acres or thousands of acres, but they are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. For a place to qualify as an IBA, it must either support a large concentration of birds, provide habitat for a threatened or rare species, or provide habitat for a bird with a very limited or restricted range. Once nominated and selected as an IBA, a site is then ranked as significant at either the state, continental, or global level.

Click here to nominate an IBA

An IBA Technical Review Group consisting of prominent ornithologists was formed to assist in evaluation and prioritization of nominated areas. The IBA Technical Review Group accepts or rejects IBA nominations based on the IBA criteria and information provided on the nomination form. To date, 44 sites have been approved in Wyoming and 54 in Colorado and with your help, many more nominations are on the way!

What’s Next?

Over the next five years, pending the necessary funds, Audubon Rockies seeks to:

• Identify additional IBAs across Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.

• Work with state and national technical committees to review nominations and document sites;

• Work with partners in New Mexico, Arizona, and Montana

• Upgrade and update the Rockies IBA database and associated maps (including GIS files);

• Select highest priority IBAs, assessing threats, species status, and conservation opportunities;

• Initiate site assessments and monitoring plans for high priority IBAs, working with communities, volunteers, and local Audubon chapters;

• Monitor threats to IBAs, and cooperate with agency officials, landowners, land managers, planners, neighbors, and other stakeholders to prevent and/or mitigate those threats;

• Expand outreach and education efforts, including online tools (e.g., web-based mapping applications), onsite nature interpretation and signage, and citizen science initiatives at IBAs; and

• Promote adoption of IBAs and other forms of community buy-in and on-the-ground action.

For additional information on the Important Bird Areas Program in Colorado, Wyoming, or Utah, please email zach.hutchinson@audubon.org. Click here to download an IBA fact sheet.