IBA Management

Iowa Audubon is pleased to present an exciting new management tool for species of birds supported within Iowa's Important Bird Area (IBA). The .pdf files (See Links below) contain a four-part educational initiative focusing on thirty-seven of Iowa's most seriously declining bird species and improved management of the primary habitats essential to the survival of those species. 

Production was funded by a grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resource's "Resource Enhancement and Protection - Conservation Education Program (REAP-CEP), with matching funds provided by Iowa Audubon. Ric Zarwell, former IBA Coordinator for Iowa Audubon, was the primary developer and author of the text. A great deal of information on the management of Iowa's wetland, woodlands and grasslands for high priority bird species was provided by Avian Ecologist Bruce Ehresman. A special feature not to be missed is vocalizations of the IBA criteria bird species. At the top of each individual species accounts, simply drag your mouse over and click on each bird's common name, and after a few seconds you'll hear the bird's song or call.

Tom Sykes of Appleton, Wisconsin, provided production services for a CD (available to IBA owners/managers) and this .pdf version. By making this information available to everyone, Iowa Audubon hopes to engage, inform and partner with, individuals who can make significant conservation progress in each of these vital habitats. We hope you will find this an educational and useful tool, whether you are the owner or manager of a designated IBA, or if you're just someone who enjoys birds as much as we do. Without your interest and cooperation, proper bird conservation in Iowa might be a more difficult, if not impossible, task.

--Doug Harr, President, Iowa Audubon

Note: Each of these links open a pdf file ranging in size from 1200 to 3100 KB. (If you have a very fast connection, the entire file can be downloaded here. It is 32,237 KB.)

• Introduction
• Bird Populations
• Habitat Recommendations
• Species Accounts

1.   Bald Eagle
2.   Northern Harrier
3.   Red-shouldered Hawk
4.   Peregrine Hawk
5.   King Rail
6.   Piping Plover
7.   Least Tern
8.   Barn Owl
9.   Short-eared Owl

1.   Long-eared Owl
2.   Henslow's Sparrow

1.   American Bittern
2.   Least Bittern
3.   Black-crowned Night-Heron
4.   Broad-winged Hawk
5.   Greater Prairie-Chicken
6.   Common Gallinule (formerly Common Moorhen)
7.   American Woodcock
8.   Forster's Tern
9.   Black Tern
10.   Black-billed Cuckoo
11.   Chuck-will's-widow
12.   Pileated Woodpecker
13.   Loggerhead Shrike
14.   White-eyed Vireo
15.   Bell's Vireo
16.   Bewick's Wren
17.   Veery
18.   Wood Thrush
19.   Cerulean Warbler
20.   Prothonotary Warbler
21.   Worm-eating Warbler
22.   Kentucky Warbler
23.   Hooded Warbler
24.   Yellow-breasted Chat
25.   Grasshopper Sparrow
26.   Bobolink