Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of birds and that make a significant contribution to the long-term viability of native avian populations in New Jersey.
IBAs may include sites for breeding, wintering and/or migrating birds. They may include public or private lands, may be protected or unprotected and range in size from a few acres to thousands of acres. IBAs are determined not by size or ownership, but by their significance to native bird species.
Thanks to the hard work of countless volunteers, who nominated over 150 potential IBAs, and our technical committee, we have 123 official IBAs and an additional 13 IBAs awaiting review. We are now looking for sites that may have been overlooked during the initial nomination process.
Nominate an Important Bird Area!
Before nominating a site, review the map of approved and provisional IBAs to see if your site is already recognized. If your site is not already nominated, follow the steps below:
- Read the Bird Area Nomination Guidelines
- Read the Important Bird Areas Criteria
- Submit Important Bird Area Nomination Form
Additional documents that may be useful for IBA nominations can be found here.
These documents are in pdf form, which requires that you have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. This free software can be downloaded here.