Kansas

The Kansas Important Bird Area program was initiated in 2010. In 2011 our two first Globally Important Bird Areas; the Flint Hills Region and the Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve and Wildlife Area were designated. Currently there are a number of additional sites under review for a Global designation. Both Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve and the Flint Hills Region host numerous species of conservation concern. The species that triggered designation of these two sites were the Whooping Crane, Greater Prairie-Chicken, American Golden-Plover, Upland Sandpiper and Buff-breasted Sandpiper. The state committee has completed the criteria for the Kansas Important Bird Area program which included the development of a list of species of conservation concern and the criteria for each of those species along with site criteria. We are currently accepting nominations for Kansas Important Bird Areas. It is our hope to eventually have six or seven Globally Important Bird Areas and about twice as many State Important Bird Areas identified in Kansas. We feel it is important to limit the number of sites designated as important to birds so as not to dilute their importance by having an unlimited number, but rather only recognizing the very best sites. Kansas supports an exceptionally diverse list of birds. More than 470 species have been documented across the wide variety of habitats available. From the tallgrass prairies of the Flint Hills in the east, to the short grass prairie of the west down to the mixed grass prairie of the Red Hills Region and the internationally important wetlands at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira. Kansas is where bird species from the west meet birds from the east and the state lies right in the center of the Central Flyway.