IBA: Important Bird Area

By Iain MacLeod on Friday, May 2, 2003.

listen:

Iain talks about a new program that helps indentify important habitat for resident and visiting birds. IBA, or Important Bird Area is an international project that is just being introduced in New Hampshire. Learn more at http://www.ceinfo.unh.edu/forestry/documents/NHIBA.htm

Hi! I'm Iain MacLeod from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, bringing you Something Wild.

And I'd like to introduce a brand-new program for New Hampshire: the Important Bird Area Program.

The Important Bird Area - IBA - program is an international bird and habitat conservation program that was created by BirdLife International. It currently has projects operating in 103 countries and 40 states.

The goal of the program is to identify and conserve areas that are critical to one or more bird species for breeding, feeding, wintering, or migration.

Despite its small size, New Hampshire hosts a diverse array of habitat types, which means it also has a diverse array of birds. More than 250 species-more than a quarter of all the species found in the U.S.-spend some time in the Granite State. Some are here during the breeding season, while others are year-round residents. Still others only pass through during migration or the winter.

There are no legal ramifications of owning an IBA. It is hoped that the designation will be used to conserve land and educate people about birds. It is also hoped that it will help us inform landowners of the significance of their properties to birds and to help them conserve their land, if they wish to.

The first IBA-the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge, in Whitefield and Jefferson-has already been announced. If you know of an area that you think should be considered an IBA in New Hampshire, you are encouraged to fill out a preliminary nomination form. Go to the Something Wild page of www.nhpr.org for more information on IBA criteria and the nomination form. Help us welcome the IBA program to New Hampshire by helping us identify our important bird areas!

And if you have a natural history question that you would like answered on Something Wild, email us at somethingwild@ nhpr.org.

Something Wild is a joint production of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain MacLeod..