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Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
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| © jefflarsen.com |
Audubon Washington participates in the Important Bird Areas
(IBA) Program, a global effort
spanning more than 100 countries on every continent. Together
with BirdLife
International, Audubon is working with members and conservation
partners to identify those places that are critical to birds
during some part of their life cycle – breeding, wintering,
feeding, or migrating. The program’s goal is to identify
these sites and then to focus stewardship efforts on protecting
these areas.
Washington has 74 IBAs,
covering habitats as varied as the open waters of the Pacific
Ocean and the arid shrub-steppe east of the Cascades. Through
bird surveys and site monitoring, citizen-scientists
are an invaluable part of our IBA effort.
Worldwide, more than 10,000 IBAs have been identified. The
United States has documented more than 2,100 IBAs. There are
thousands more in Canada, Mexico, and throughout Central and
South America.
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| © jefflarsen.com |
Habitat loss and fragmentation are the
most serious threats facing birds across America and around
the world, so the goal of the IBA program is to minimize the
effects of such loss and fragmentation – in order, ultimately,
to save and restore bird species and numbers. |
