For a site to be considered for IBA status, it must meet at least one of the following five criteria:
Sites should consistently support significant breeding densities of one or more of the following federal or state listed species. Sites should not be imminently imperiled with destruction or major alteration, or be areas of infrequent or historical occurrence for the species.
| Piping Plover | Mountain Plover | Interior Least Tern |
a) Sites should attract regularly occurring, significant breeding densities of any one of the following species. Special consideration will be made for sites with 3 or more species, or those with the highest known regularly occurring populations.
| Eared Grebe | Wilson's Phalarope |
Loggerhead Shrike |
| Western Grebe | Forster's Tern | Bell's Vireo |
| American Bittern | Black Tern | Pygmy Nuthatch |
| Least Bittern | Black-billed Cuckoo | Wood Thrush |
| Trumpeter Swan | Yellow-billed Cuckoo | Cerulean Warbler |
| Northern Harrier | Burrowing Owl | Prothonotary Warbler |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | Short-eared Owl | Kentucky Warbler |
| Swainson's Hawk | Whip-poor-will | Cassin's Sparrow |
| Ferruginous Hawk | Lewis's Woodpecker | Brewer's Sparrow |
| Greater Prairie-Chicken | Red-headed Woodpecker | Lark Bunting |
| Willet | Pileated Woodpecker |
Grasshopper Sparrow |
| Upland Sandpiper | Acadian Flycatcher | Henslow's Sparrow |
| Long-billed Curlew | Cordilleran Flycatcher | Swamp Sparrow |
| McCown's Longspur | Chestnut-collared Longspur | Dickcissel |
| Bobolink |
b) Sites should contain a significant proportion of any of the following species' flyway population during spring or fall migration (non-breeding occurrences). Special consideration will be made for sites with 3 or more species, or those with the highest known regularly occurring populations. (Species listed in both 'a' and 'b' sections of Category 2 would be found in different habitats during breeding and migration seasons.)
| Greater White-fronted Goose | White-rumped Sandpiper |
| Sandhill Crane | Baird's Sandpiper |
| Whooping Crane | Stilt Sandpiper |
| American Golden-Plover | Buff-breasted Sandpiper |
| Piping Plover | Wilson's Phalarope |
| Long-billed Curlew | Franklin's Gull |
| Hudsonian Godwit |
c) Sites attracting species of which knowledge of their life histories in Nebraska (breeding records, migration patterns, overall population trends) is limited and education/research is needed.
| Clark's Grebe | Sandhill Crane (breeding) |
| Hooded Merganser (breeding) | Long-eared Owl |
| Mississippi Kite | Sprague's Pipit |
| Yellow Rail | Baird's Sparrow |
| Black Rail | Smith's Longspur |
Sites should consistently attract high densities, high diversities, or both of one or more species in any of the following categories. Occurrences can be during breeding season, migration, or winter. Introduced or nuisance species—European starling, Canada goose (non-migratory), et al.—should not be included.
a) Aquatic habitats:
1) Waterfowl (loons, grebes, cormorants, geese, ducks, swans, and coots)
2) Shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers, snipe, woodcock, and phalaropes)
3) Waders (bitterns, herons, egrets, cranes, and ibises)
4) Gulls and terns
b) Terrestrial habitats: (for example, important migratory stopovers where geographical features concentrate large numbers of birds)
1) Raptors
2) Passerines
Sites that are natural areas where long-term avian research, monitoring projects, or both take place, or that contribute substantially to ornithology, bird conservation, and education.
Sites that contain rare or vulnerable habitats within the state/region or an exceptional representative of a natural habitat (containing high species and natural habitat diversity), and that hold important species or species assemblages largely restricted to a distinctive habitat type.
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