Audubon Arizona

Important Bird Area Stewardship, Individuals and Teams Needed
Adopt an Arizona Important Bird Area. Conduct six to nine bird surveys with your "IBA team," participate in site-specific projects related to birds or habitat conservation.

IBA conservation and site survey protocols
AZ Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program Promotes "Birding for Conservation" at IBAs.

The IBA program is pursuing Audubon members, birders, and others to nominate sites in Arizona as Important Bird Areas. There is an equally important way you can help Arizona’s premiere bird habitats and birds, which is "birding with a purpose" at these special sites!! This is our avian monitoring program at Arizona IBAs!

The nine Audubon chapters in Arizona are actively surveying our IBA’s through organized counts using Arizona survey protocols, participating in Christmas Bird Counts, County spring migration counts, and during the Great Backyard Bird Count.

You can also be of a great help to us by entering your observations into eBird and taking the extra time to count how many you saw of our species of greatest conservation concern and noting your start and end time.

What is an IBA? It is an ecologically discrete, conservation feasible, and management scale appropriate area of land. It must meet specific bird and habitat criteria set by the Arizona IBA Scientific Review Committee. National Audubon and its IBA National Technical Committee provide program guidance, and review of sites for National and Continental IBA status.

Arizona IBA Bird Survey Protocol Details and historic data are located here.:

List of Identified Arizona IBAs
Sites officially identified as Important Bird Areas under the Arizona IBA Program (as of July 2010) are:

1. San Pedro River National Conservation Area
2. Salt-Verde Ecosystem (Saguaro Lake north through the Mazatzal Wilderness)
3. Salt-Lower Gila Ecosystem (from 83rd Ave. Phoenix to the Gillespie Dam
4. Tuzigoot (Peck's Lake/Tavasci Marsh/Verde River Greenway)
5. Watson and Willow Lakes (and provisionally the Granite Dells/upland habitat)
6. Grand Canyon National Park—Lipan and Yaki Raptor Migration Points
7. Imperial Reservoir
8. Mittry Lake State Wildlife Area
9. Lower Oak Creek (Formerly "Page Springs Fish Hatchery")
10. Arivaca Cienega/Arivaca Creek
11. California Gulch, Coronado National Forest
12. Upper Little Colorado River Watershed
13. Marble Canyon - A global site for the California Condor
14. Chiricahua Mountains - A global site for the Spotted Owl
15. Santa Rita Mountains
16. Sycamore Canyon
17. Sabino and Lower Bear Creek
18. Audubon Appleton-Whittell Audubon Research Ranch
19. Huachuca Mountains
20. Boyce Thompson Arboretum/Arnett-Queen Creeks
21. Agua Fria National Monument Riparian Corridors
22. Blue River Complex
23. Anderson Mesa - A global site for the Pinyon Jay
24. Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge - A global site for Black Rail and Bell's Vireo
25. Lower Gila River Quigley Wildlife Area
26. Lower Colorado River Gadsden Riparian Area
27. Gilbert Riparian Preserve
28. Lower San Pedro River - A global site for Bell's Vireo
29. Patagonia Lake and Sonoita Creek Natural Area
30. Upper Santa Cruz River Riparian Corridor
31. Cibola National Wildlife Refuge
32. Havasu National Wildlife Refuge
33. Imperial National Wildlife Refuge
34. Upper Verde River
35. Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area
36. Willcox Playa Wildlife Area and Lake Cochise
37. Cave Creek Ecosystem, Maricopa County
38. Mogollon Rim Snowmelt Draws
39. Sonoita Creek TNC Preserve
40. Sonoran Desert Borderlands