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 Arizona Important Bird Areas Program / Tucson Audubon Society
IBA Information Archive

 This page archives information that has appeared earlier regarding the Arizona Important Bird Areas Program.

Changes for 2005 in Arizona's Important Bird Areas Program
by Scott Wilbor, IBA Conservation Biologist, Tucson Audubon Society
(Reprinted from the February 2005 issue of the Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

2005 starts a new era for Audubon’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program in Arizona. Audubon Arizona has hired a new Director of Bird Conservation, Tice Supplee who has worked for Arizona Game and Fish Department for the last 29 years and been a leader at Sonoran Audubon since 1999. Tice will now oversee the IBA Program in Arizona, and is charged with continuing the identification and recognition of IBAs across the state, pursuing the conservation of IBAs, and being Audubon’s Arizona lead for conservation policy.

Tucson Audubon remains an integral part of Arizona’s IBA Program. I continue as IBA Conservation Biologist at Tucson Audubon. Our focus is now southern Arizona IBA conservation, and coordinating the IBA avian science program. With the conservation of important avian habitat in the Santa Cruz and San Pedro watersheds as our focus, we continue to assist land managers in southern Arizona.

Over the last 2 years we have worked hard to build the Audubon’s IBA Program in Arizona. We conducted outreach to all eight Arizona chapters to nominate and provide data for IBA identification. We formed a Scientific Review Committee of 14 biologists and bird experts. We researched and put together additional IBA nominations. We held three IBA technical meetings which to date have identified 26 IBAs in Arizona, with an additional 69 potential IBAs with high probability of meeting IBA criteria. A catalog of these IBAs was produced in November, a project supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sonoran Joint Venture. Over these last two years we have helped permanently protect 215 acres on the Santa Cruz and San Pedro drainages, and helped landowners in the Huachuca Mountains initiate habitat restoration on their 160-acre ranch. Lastly, we have coordinated 11 IBA teams in the collection of IBA data. Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Arizona Bird Conservation Initiative program continues to be our primary supporter and has increased funding for the program each year, for which we are most grateful.

2005 is an exciting time for us! We have completed a draft Avian Habitat Conservation Plan for the U.S. Upper Santa Cruz River Riparian Corridor in Santa Cruz County. This will lead to a landowner document for best practices in avian habitat and sensitive species management in Arizona, projects funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In 2004 we received funding from the U.S. Forest Service International Programs (USFSIP), which allowed us to conduct a synthesis of avian data collected on the Santa Cruz River both in the U.S. and Mexico. New funding from USFSIP in 2005 will allow us to collect new avian data throughout the watershed to further expand our knowledge of bird populations in order to evaluate conservation effectiveness and conservation needs of this shared watershed. In 2005 we will broaden Audubon volunteer involvement to pursue this goal. In order to help achieve this goal Arizona State Parks has partnered with us to train Audubon volunteers and state park personnel to conduct avian monitoring at IBAs. See adjacent box for our IBA workshop announcement. With your participation we are set to accomplish much for the conservation of birds and their habitat in 2005! We look forward to hearing from you!

Arizona IBA Program—Update!
by Scott Wilbor, Arizona IBA Program Coordinator
(Reprinted from the July-August 2004 issue of the Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

With 26 identified Important Bird Areas in Arizona (IBA), and an evolving partnership with the Audubon Arizona state office in Phoenix to continue this identification process, the IBA Program at Tucson Audubon is focusing its role on Important Bird Area stewardship, science, and conservation. Two words will describe our activities this summer: site conservation.

Nothing could be more exciting than our projects to work with landowners and managers to come up with conservation plans for key riparian corridors in Arizona. Our work requires us to get personal, and you’ll find us out in the field visiting key habitats, meeting landowners, and discussing strategies, not to mention working with our key professional colleagues with valuable expertise. In southern Arizona we are working in the Upper Santa Cruz, from the border to north of Tubac, and along the Sabino/Bear Creek watershed in Tucson. In northern Arizona, key sites are Lower Oak Creek and the Verde River area known as Tuzigoot IBA.

Our Santa Cruz River bird conservation mapping project continues to map and analyze the distribution and abundance of bird species of concern along the Santa Cruz riparian corridor, including in Mexico. We are in the process of working through complex details of integrating all documented observations from 1990 to 2003, and relating this distribution to many environmental and human factors. We continue to add "spot bird surveys" to further this effort. Ultimately we will be able to identify key areas in greatest need in terms of stress abatement, restoration, and protection.

We also continue to assist Audubon chapters statewide in the formation of IBA Stewardship or Bird Survey Teams (or individuals) to monitor existing IBAs to assist in their management, or inventory proposed IBAs to acquire data to identify them, respectively. New backcountry bird surveys have begun at Sycamore Creek, the Verde headwaters, and at Clear Creek (Yavapai County). Other new inventory efforts closer to Audubon chapters are underway at the Gilbert Riparian Institute (Maricopa Audubon), Watson/Willow Lakes IBA near Prescott Audubon (consulting firm), and in the uplands of Agua Fria National Monument (Sonoran Audubon). New monitoring is underway at Sabino Creek and Arthur Pack Park (Tucson Audubon) and in the upper San Pedro River (Huachuca Audubon). Some loss of key individuals means we need to continually find interested birders to help in these efforts. The following areas need assistance: Tubac/Tumacacori, Tuzigoot, Lower Oak Creek and Cienega Creek (please give us a call to get you out helping!).

The National Audubon’s IBA Conference comes to Arizona this August 11-14, and we will report on some of our work. All-in-all a busy summer! We can always use your help in a number of ways: data entry, photo documentation of sites, GPS mapping, and bird surveys. Have a great summer, and we’ll keep you updated on progress with our Santa Cruz bird conservation mapping project and site conservation plans come this fall!

Arizona Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program Announces New IBAs Approved by Scientific Review Committee
by Scott Wilbor 
(First appeared in the March 2004 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

On January 29, 2004, ten members of Audubon’s Arizona IBA Scientific Review Committee met to review site data and habitat information for proposed Important Bird Areas. Tucson Audubon Society coordinates National Audubon Society’s Important Bird Areas Program in Arizona. At this technical meeting eleven sites were evaluated in regard to ornithological and habitat criteria previously set by the committee following National Audubon Society’s IBA Program guidelines. The Scientific Review Committee is composed of biologists and bird experts from all over Arizona. All eleven sites were approved, bringing our total to 27 sites identified as Important Bird Areas in Arizona!! Full IBA recognition for these sites is pending landowner approval.

These sites represented Audubon’s eight Arizona chapters’ special interest IBA nominations and were submitted between September and December 15, 2003, the end of our first-round of IBA nominations. The new IBAs identified (and nominator affiliations) are:

1. Sabino and Lower Bear Creek (Tucson Audubon and IBA)
2. Appleton-Whittell Audubon Research Ranch (Research Ranch)
3. Huachuca Mountains (Huachuca Audubon and IBA)
4. Boyce Thompson Arboretum (Prescott College)
5. Agua Fria National Monument Riparian Corridors (Sonoran Audubon)
6. Blue River Complex (White Mountain Audubon)
7. Lower Oak Creek (Northern Arizona Audubon and IBA)
8. Anderson Mesa (Northern Arizona Audubon and IBA)
9. Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge (Maricopa Audubon and IBA)
10. Lower Gila River Quigley Wildlife Area (Yuma Audubon)
11. Lower Colorado River Gadsden Riparian Area (Yuma Audubon)

The Scientific Review Committee has also approved a "working list" of approximately 60 additional potential IBAs in Arizona, which may meet IBA criteria upon future review.

What does this IBA status mean for these sites?

1. It gives recognition to the landowner or managers in regard to the outstanding bird populations and habitat they manage.

2. It gives support to public land management agencies to manage and protect these outstanding sites and avian populations.

3. It ranks these sites higher for federal grants to benefit conservation status species.

4. It encourages land managers and local Audubon chapters to become involved in site bird monitoring, and form new partnerships to pursue conservation, enhancement, or restoration projects at these sites.

Closer to home the approval of Sabino Creek reaffirms the importance of this and other riparian oases throughout southern Arizona. Low-elevation watercourses with cottonwood, willow, ash, and sycamore riparian habitat and perennial water are of course extremely rare in the Sonoran Desert. The Committee recognized this uniqueness, as well as the documented occurrence of many riparian-dependent birds such as Bell’s Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Lucy’s Warbler, Abert’s Towhee, and hummingbirds such as Costa’s and Broad-billed. It was also noted that Sabino Creek offers one of the best opportunities near a population center to educate the public on the uniqueness and importance of riparian areas to birds of conservation concern and the broad range of biodiversity they support. The Sabino Canyon Naturalist Program, and the new nature preserve and beginning education programs by Tucson Audubon at the John Madden property were cited as special supportive reasons for its approval.

Where do we go from here? Efforts are already underway to establish a citizen-science IBA Science Team for Sabino Creek. New education programs at the Madden property are being explored, and assessments are being made by Tucson Audubon to determine how to enhance habitat and species of concern at the Madden property. Statewide we are encouraging all Audubon chapters to adopt one of the 27 identified IBAs, and begin an IBA Stewardship Program around one or more of them. Stewardship activities are likely to entail: bird monitoring through IBA Teams, habitat monitoring (through report cards & photo point monitoring), site clean-up, non-native species removal, habitat restoration or enhancement, sensitive habitat protection, GPS mapping, and site monitoring for threats to birds and habitat.

For the proposed Santa Cruz River IBA we continue to collect data and map the distribution of birds of conservation concern in collaboration with Mexican ornithologists. We have had great help from our IBA Science Teams at both Tumacacori and Tubac. Volunteers are needed for additional IBA Teams to conduct bird surveys in the Santa Cruz watershed. Recently, our advocacy, in partnership with National Audubon’s policy division, contributed to Congress’s decision to appropriate 1.5 million dollars to purchase land (90 acres) to expand Tumacacori National Historical Park. This addition to the park will preserve critical riparian habitat along the Santa Cruz River. Tucson Audubon’s Restoration Program and IBA Program have a strong commitment to the conservation of this critically important habitat for birds in southern Arizona. We continue to pursue new partnerships in our conservation efforts in this watershed! Your help on any of the many projects Tucson Audubon is engaged in will help ensure our special avian habitats in southern Arizona are conserved and protected into the future!

Recent Action at Important Bird Areas
by Scott Wilbor
(Article first appeared in the November 2003 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

Barn Owls galore released at Santa Cruz River Restoration site!
Exciting times at Important Bird Areas (IBAs) have occurred this fall! The Santa Cruz River, is one of a number of IBAs that will be reviewed by our IBA Scientific Review Committee in the near future. This proposed IBA would cover the entire length of the river from Arizona’s headwaters, through Mexico, and back up into Pinal County. The US Forest Service International Program, beginning this past summer, has funded data research and synthesis. Other potential IBAs across Arizona will be reviewed for our "first-cut" of Audubon’s Important Bird Areas in Arizona in 2004. The period closes for IBA nominations on December 15, 2003. Check our web site at www.tucsonaudubon/azibaprogram for current information on site nominations.

On September 11, Tucson Audubon staff helped Wild At Heart, an all-volunteer raptor rehabilitation center located in Cave Creek, Arizona, find-release sites for 18 Barn Owls at the Santa Cruz River Habitat Restoration site! "Sam" and Bob Fox are the co-founders of Wild At Heart. The Barn Owls released along the Santa Cruz were taken in by Wild At Heart under a variety of different situations from throughout Arizona, primarily from the Phoenix valley. These owls, and other raptors, brought to Wild At Heart, require temporary rehabilitation and care, until good health, "wild conditioning", and suitable release habitats are assured. Needing to find new habitats away from development pressures around Phoenix, Wild At Heart contacted the IBA Program at Tucson Audubon Society. Tucson Audubon offered to provide logistical, personnel, and equipment assistance for the release—as well as ideal protected habitat. Bob and volunteer Craig Woodruff brought down the owls and temporary release nest boxes. In the late afternoon, we took three groups of six owls to pre-selected forest patches along the Santa Cruz River on the restoration site. Working as a team, with Bob Fox leading and securing the boxes to trees, we hoisted up 6 Barn Owls to each box. Boxes measured 2½ ft. by 2 ft. by 1½ ft. high. Two boxes were placed in Goodding willow stands, and one in a large Tamarisk tree. Owls were confined to boxes for 1½ to 2+ hours to settle from their ride down from Cave Creek. Beginning at dusk and continuing into the evening we pulled the cloth doors from the boxes to allow owls the opportunity to disperse at their own set comfort time. Under a nearly full moon, two, one, and zero owls, respectively, left their boxes when they were given the opportunity. Noteworthy, were two additional Barn Owls seen before we released the owls as we drove between release sites. Also, the tremendous number of voles dashing past our headlights reassured us sufficient prey would not be a problem for these mostly inexperienced young owls.

The Santa Cruz River corridor, nearby Brawley Wash, and surrounding agriculture fields, both active and abandoned, will provide expansive habitat for hunting and eventual nesting, as the owls find their own territories over the course of the winter and spring. This project fits well with efforts to restore native flora and fauna to degraded sections of this important habitat corridor, and is most worthy of IBA Program involvement in wildlife enhancement activities at potential IBAs. We were glad we could assist!

The IBA Program with support of landowners Sharon and Oliver Harper and U.S. Senator John and Cindy McCain, recently completed a nest box project on the Harper/McCain Oak Creek property. This tremendous property, consisting of 25 acres of developed land, orchards, gardens, mesquite groves, towering sycamores and ash trees, intact dense riparian patches, and floodplain provide habitat to numerous species of conservation concern or interest in Arizona, such as the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Common Black-Hawk, Great Blue Heron, Brown-crested Flycatcher, and Wood Duck. In July, we put up two additional Wood Duck nest boxes, bringing our total to seven. Most of these boxes have shown signs of Wood Duck use, and we hope to have a complete monitoring program in place in 2004. Recently, in September, with technical assistance from Kate Scott who runs a successful nest box trail on her and husband’s Huachuca Mountain ranch, we installed five new nest boxes of varying sizes along Oak Creek and the developed property. These boxes will also fall under a planned nest box monitoring program in 2004. A mist-netting and banding study has also been proposed by our partners for lower Oak Creek. Central Arizona nesting data for certain species, the first ever collected, would add to our understanding of nesting ecology of birds in this area and complement the banding project. Future restoration work on degraded rangeland and conservation planning is planned with the Harpers and McCains. We have also expanded new conservation partnerships with additional private landowners whom we have contacted along this 10-mile stretch of creek, proposed as the Lower Oak Creek IBA. The IBA conservation concept is spreading rapidly with our excited partners at this IBA!

On September 20 at the 6am hour, nine surveyors took to their assigned section of Sabino Creek to survey birds as part of our Sabino Creek IBA inventory and to contribute to the North American Migrant Count held across the country on this day. Six groups surveyed from nearly a mile to 2 miles of the creek, covering from shuttle station 6 in Sabino Canyon to the confluence with Tanque Verde Wash. Although some high quality riparian habitat was not surveyed (0.3, 0.5, and 1.35 mile sections respectively), we still recorded 78 species and 1068 birds in a two-hour time window! Particularly enlightening, the private land portion of Sabino Creek was the most species-rich and, by far, had the greatest abundance for the most species, including the most "rare species."

Our survey indicated the following: Cooper’s Hawks were abundant along the entire creek south of shuttle station 1 (8 seen). The upper section from Sabino Dam upstream was particularly rich in wren species and recorded all Arizona wren species, except the Marsh Wren (5 species, 12 individuals). Verdin were also most abundant here (7). The area below the dam is rugged travel, but favored by many hummingbirds (6 individuals), and was the first area downstream of Sabino Dam with a Belted Kingfisher. Eight white-tailed deer, including two large bucks passed through this area during the survey. The area above the dam to a mile below the dam was the only area we observed Bell’s Vireo (6). The area at and north of Snyder Rd. was great for raptors (Cooper’s, Prairie Falcon-2, Great Horned Owl, and a Sharp-shinned seen 4 days post-count), woodpeckers (15 Gila!), and Kingfisher (2!); their occurrence attributed to the large ash, sycamores, hackberry, and mesquite. Madden pond provided the Pied-billed Grebe and Mallards (7). The section south of Snyder Road was hummingbird central with 5 species recorded (13 individuals), and the only Great Blue Heron! These two middle sections and south of Cloud Road were the strongholds of Lesser Goldfinch abundance, too (127). Lastly, the section below Cloud Road to Tanque Verde Wash was bountiful in sparrows (7 species, 88 indiv.), including a Grasshopper Sparrow, as well as Abert’s Towhee (11), Green-tailed Towhee (12), Mourning Doves (69), Gambel’s Quail (23), and many more neighborhood-associated species such as House Finches (181). A Peregrine, Osprey, and Zone-tailed Hawk were particularly exciting finds in this lower section! An immature Gray Hawk was also seen here the Sunday prior to the count! Overall, combined with our more intensive Madden and Hidden Valley ongoing bird surveys, this one-day creek-wide survey will add to the documentation of this exceptional riparian oasis’s importance to birds, and will help our IBA Scientific Review Committee evaluate it for Arizona IBA status in the near future!

Nominations Due for "First Cut" by End of 2003
Scott Wilbor, Important Bird Areas Program Coordinator
(Reprinted from the October 2003 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

The Arizona Important Bird Areas program run by Tucson Audubon Society is compiling a site database and catalog of the most critical habitat for birds in Arizona. Identification of this "first-cut" of sites will result in a portfolio of sites prioritizing where conservation/protection of Arizona’s most critical avian habitat should occur. Many members of Arizona’s eight Audubon chapters have already participated in nominating Important Bird Areas (IBAs). Out of some 25 nominations, our Scientific Review Committee has approved 16 IBAs, including many of our internationally important migratory and breeding bird habitats, e.g. the San Pedro River NCA, Salt-Gila River, Verde River, sites along the Colorado River, and Oak Creek (at Page Springs).

Now, we are moving into high gear to assemble a full catalog of potential sites to review as our "first cut" leading to an eventual publication of Arizona’s IBAs. This open nomination period will end on December 15, 2003. We need your assistance to help us put species occurrence and numbers to potential sites. Check out our "Quick ID" IBA Nomination form or the official Arizona IBA Nomination form, and the list of approved, nominated, and potential sites to nominate on our web site. Sites qualify as IBAs based on four criteria:

1. Sites important to special status avian species (see the AZ IBA web site for a list of species). Our IBA technical committee will determine qualifying numbers for individual species.

2. Sites with significant concentrations of birds (in any season), >1% state population or:

· Waterfowl (2000+)

· Shorebirds (100+)

· Raptors (1000+ in migration, 200+ wintering, breeding numbers evaluated by IBA tech. comm.)

· Cranes (2000+)

· Waterbirds (significant concentrations will be evaluated by IBA technical committee)

· Wading birds (evaluated by IBA tech. comm.)

· Landbirds (numbers, density, or diversity, evaluated by IBA tech. comm.)

3. Sites that contain unique habitat or an exceptional representative ecological community type, and hold bird species largely restricted to the habitat or community type.

4. (Supportive) Sites important to long-term avian research or supporting educational programs focusing on birds.

Sites benefit in many ways from IBA identification: higher ranking for federal wildlife grants, recognition resulting in increased value of wildlife resources in agency land use planning documents, and greater awareness by federal and state governmental entities in land use decisions.

There are additional ways to become involved in the IBA Program! We need citizen-scientists to adopt a site and form IBA Science Teams to collect bird and habitat data. This is especially needed for sites that are known as important to birds but which have had limited or no formal surveys, or where changes in habitat now support species of conservation status or significant concentration of birds. In southern Arizona the effluent-supported Santa Cruz River is one such example. Key sites in or near Tucson for which we need data are: Sabino Creek, Cienega Creek, the middle Santa Cruz River, K.E.R.P at Sam Lena Park, northwest Tucson, as well as others sites along the upper Santa Cruz River, Happy Valley, Las Cienegas, the lower San Pedro River, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (select sites), Sonoita Creek, and in the Patagonia and Rio Rico areas. The Arizona IBA Program coordinates citizen-science IBA surveys throughout the state.

Lastly, the Arizona IBA program partners with landowners and land management agencies to promote conservation at IBAs. The IBA Program drafts or advises others on writing Avian Conservation Plans and the implementation actions to protect IBAs. The IBA Program also works directly with landowners at IBAs to protect, conserve, or enhance birds and their habitat. Three examples are: 1) on the lower San Pedro River, the facilitation of a land deal between private landowners and the Salt River Project, Inc.(SRP). This resulted in 125 acres of riparian habitat in permanent conservation protection owned and managed by SRP to provide mitigation habitat for the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher and Yellow-billed Cuckoo, while providing lifetime estate access rights to the private landowners; 2) on lower Oak Creek, private landowners supported bird monitoring and nest boxes on their land to benefit cavity-nesting birds and Wood Ducks along the creek; and 3) at the Huachuca Mountains, in partnership with Arizona Game and Fish Department, continued assistance to private landowners to secure wildlife enhancement grants for riparian habitat fencing, wetland enhancement, and grassland restoration.

We hope you can help as we focus on completing our "first-cut" catalog of IBAs in Arizona, and we appreciate however you can contribute to our success in protecting Arizona’s most critical avian habitats! Remember to contact us and nominate an IBA by Dec. 15!

Arizona Important Bird Area Update
by Scott Wilbor  
(September 2003 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

The Arizona IBA Program, managed by Tucson Audubon Society, is conducting an inventory of bird habitats that may qualify as Important Bird Areas under National Audubon Society’s IBA Program. Nomination of an Arizona Important Bird Area is open to everyone! The recognition of IBA status through Audubon’s IBA Program can help a site gain greater awareness by land managers and decision makers, increased grant-funding opportunities, initiation of citizen-science or professional bird studies, or site conservation projects. Please check our web site to view different areas’ status in our review and our new" Quick ID Nomination" IBA form.

We have been busy working on gathering bird data for IBA identification throughout Arizona. Citizen-scientists participating in IBA Science Teams are contributing needed data in this effort as well. Santa Cruz River IBA Teams at Tubac and Tumacacori have contributed outstanding data. Please feel free to contact the IBA Program office and join in this effort.

In southern Arizona and in Tucson, we have focused our attention on two critical potential IBAs for data gathering and activities to conserve important riparian habitat. These areas are the Santa Cruz River and Sabino Creek, both internationally important migratory habitats for birds. With help from the U.S. Forest Service International Programs we are putting together a geographic-based synthesis of available data on birds of conservation concern occurring within the Santa Cruz River corridor habitat. We are collaborating with Mexican biologists in this effort. The project will identify data gaps, areas for further research, and areas to pursue immediate protection measures or conservation projects. At Sabino Creek, we also seek to collect data for IBA recognition, and to broaden participation of landowners in habitat conservation and protection efforts along the privately owned lower Sabino Creek. Sabino Creek landowner Dr. John Madden has been instrumental in working with Tucson Audubon Society to establish a nature preserve on his land within this stretch. Also particularly supportive in these efforts has been the Sabino Creek Homeowners Association and individual landowners. As part of our IBA Conservation Initiative we plan to work with landowners and mangers at both of these IBAs to produce habitat conservation plans and determine the implementation actions our partners can initiate.

Important Bird Areas Program: Avian Science Intiative
Scott Wilbor, Arizona IBA Coordinator & Tucson Audubon Conservation Biologist
(Reprinted from the March, 2003 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

Arizona’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program announces its avian science initiative at important bird areas statewide this spring, 2003! As we continue to identify, document, and publicly recognize Arizona’s Important Bird Areas through our grassroots nomination objective (see our web site), it has become obvious that many sites lack good quantitative data on the birds we are most concerned about conserving. Yet, here is where the strength, skill, and desire of Audubon’s membership, through our eight chapters across Arizona, can be harnessed. Our chapters possess tremendously dedicated birders and potential "citizen-scientists." We need birders across Arizona to adopt IBAs and help inventory and monitor key species to provide information for managers and conservation scientists to make informed land management decisions. Additionally, these surveys can identify stressors, potential impacts, enhancement opportunities, and guide prioritization for habitat acquisition or other protection measures.

At the national level, Audubon has been asked by our partners in the federal and state governments (i.e., North American Bird Conservation Initiative–NABCI, Shorebird and Waterbird Conservation Plans, and Partners in Flight working groups) to step up to meet this need. Audubon has been doing this on a broad scale for over 100 years through Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count which has documented gross changes in early-wintering bird abundance and distribution across the western hemisphere. Many Audubon members have also participated in the North American Migrant Count, often in conjunction with International Migratory Bird Day (this year May 10, 2003), as well as Arizona’s Breeding Bird Atlas through AZ Game and Fish, Breeding Bird Survey through the U.S. Geological Survey, and in Tucson basin, the renowned Tucson Bird Count overseen by Will Turner at the University of Arizona. The Arizona IBA Program would like participants of these efforts, and especially Audubon members, to help document our Arizona species of conservation concern at priority conservation sites!

National Audubon has indicated to its partners the ability of our state IBA programs to document and inventory waterbirds (e.g., rails), wading birds (e.g., egrets, herons, ibises), and shorebirds (e.g., stilts and avocets) at wetlands. In Arizona these habitats are, of course, rare. This we can do near our chapter membership bases where this habitat exists! Nesting raptors, within defined areas, are a group of birds that are also fitting of our membership capabilities (e.g., Harris’s Hawk, Gray Hawk, Common Black-Hawk). Our riparian habitats support approximately 80% of our southwestern breeding birds, indicating their critical importance in the landscape. Tragically, an estimated 95% of southwestern riparian habitat has been altered or destroyed in the past 125 years. Thus in Arizona, we have a critical responsibility to protect our riparian obligate and dependent species (e.g., Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Summer Tanager, and many others), and this will be a major focus of our efforts.

Our Sonoran Desert is unique to the western hemisphere in its plant diversity and abundance. It supports many birds of conservation concern, and hundreds of acres per day near Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma are being lost to development. Unique ironwood, palo verde, saguaro associations and xeric riparian areas are especially critical to many species whose population bases are centered in this habitat (e.g., Costa’s Hummingbird, Purple Martin-subspecies hesperia, Gilded Flicker, and Black-throated Sparrow). Here again, we have strong membership capabilities in Tucson, Maricopa, Sonoran, and Yuma Audubon chapters. Our forests (both our sky islands and montane conifer), semi-desert grasslands, great basin grasslands and desert-scrub, chaparral, Chihuahuan and Mohave Desert habitats also have avian species of conservation concern in need of basic information. Our Audubon chapters in Prescott, northern Arizona, White Mountain, and Huachuca have important roles in inventorying and monitoring special areas in these habitats.

Beginning this spring 2003, we are searching for Audubon members who want to be part of IBA Avian Science Teams for identified or potential IBAs throughout Arizona. Our first wetland, Sonoran Desert, and raptor surveys will begin in March. More intensive riparian surveys will be conducted in April/May. IBA Science Teams will be given a standard protocol to follow, and surveys will focus on a "suite of key species," generally 5 or fewer, but more in riparian habitats (10-15 species). These are species recognized as warranting conservation attention or indicators of habitat health. Surveys are generally 2 or 3 per season, but remote sites may only be surveyed once, with an emphasis on the breeding and migration periods. Teams will be made up of 2 to 4 people. Special nest-census surveys may have up to 8 or 10 people, plus Audubon staff or chapter officers. Organization of this statewide IBA avian science initiative will be through a collaborative relationship between the Arizona IBA Program office and regional chapter IBA coordinators/conservation chairpersons, with full data-sharing among the AZ IBA office, chapters, and the national bird monitoring efforts.

In southeastern Arizona, within the Tucson Audubon Society region, a number of priority areas to be covered by the AZ IBA Avian Science Initiative have been identified. These areas include: the middle Santa Cruz River, Mason Audubon/Arthur Pack Park/Tortolita (survey team in place at MAC & A.P.P.), Cañada del Oro, Tanque Verde/Aqua Caliente, Sabino Creek, Happy Valley, Cienega Creek, Las Cienegas, Sonoita Creek, upper Santa Cruz (Kino Springs), Patagonia area, lower San Pedro, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge-select sites, and Tumacacori/Tubac area. Of these fourteen areas, we would be pleased to have 4 sites with IBA Avian Science Teams in place this spring. We will continue to collaborate and share data with the Tucson Bird Count efforts, benefiting both projects in the Tucson basin. Outside of our citizen-science team effort, we continue to pursue more intensive Tucson Audubon staff-supported avian science projects at the Santa Cruz River Restoration Site, Cienega Creek Natural Preserve, the Kino Ecosystem Restoration Project, Muleshoe Cooperative Management Area, and will add the lower San Pedro River, middle Santa Cruz River wetlands, and Tumacacori beginning this year. Some of our citizen-science teams will work jointly with Tucson Audubon staff at particular sites (i.e., Mason Audubon, Tumacacori, Cienega Creek, lower San Pedro River, and potentially others).

Our first survey will be Sunday, March 16 (raptor survey) based from Tumacacori National Historic Park (space available up to 8 people—please call 622-2230 to sign up). A similar "large team" survey for nesting Yellow-billed Cuckoos will be conducted at Tumacacori and on the lower San Pedro River in July. Sites within Sonoran Desert habitat are open for surveys by IBA Science Teams beginning in the latter half of March. Wetland sites can be surveyed at the very end of March through mid-April. Riparian bird surveys can begin by April 21 and can continue through the third week in May. Remember to continue checking our monthly Vermilion Flycatcher and website calendars for information in the coming months for other large team-group surveys. Please call to find out about adopting an IBA and forming an IBA Avian Science Team for a special site near you!

Arizona's Important Bird Areas Program Announces First IBAs
by Scott Wilbor, Arizona Important Bird Areas Coordinator
(Reprinted from the October, 2002 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

After many miles of travel, zillions of e-mails, and plenty of phone calls to birders, biologists, and Audubon members throughout Arizona we are very happy to announce our first Important Bird Areas (IBAs) officially identified in Arizona. The Arizona IBA Scientific Review Committee held its first review of nominated IBAs July 24th. Nominations came from seven of the eight Arizona Audubon chapters and covered all areas of the state except the far northeast, far northwest, and east-central areas (White Mountain Audubon now has several nominations in progress). These nominations met one of the three defined IBA criteria: 1) They contain species of conservation concern (including federal threatened and endangered species), 2) Certain numeric criteria for waterfowl, waterbirds, shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, cranes, and landbirds, or 3) Rare, unique, or exceptional representative habitat. The first round of sites identified under the Arizona IBA Program are:

1. San Pedro River National Conservation Area

2. Salt & Verde Rivers Ecosystem (Saguaro Lake north through the Mazatzal Wilderness)

3. Salt & Lower Gila Rivers 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/Lipan and Yaki Raptor Migration Points

7. Imperial Reservoir

8. Mittry Lake State Wildlife Area

9. Page Springs Fish Hatchery

10. Arivaca Cienega & Creek, Buenos Aires NWR

11. California Gulch, Coronado National Forest

(Another five sites were deferred due to data inadequacies, but all have high potential for approval.)

We are particularly pleased with this first set of nominations, especially given how new the IBA program is to all the chapters in Arizona, as well as to the biologists contacted throughout Arizona.

Two areas on this list, and one potential future IBA, deserve special mention due to outstanding conservation efforts, Audubon leadership, and special landowner participation.

Tuzigoot IBA, near Clarkdale, Arizona, is widely recognized for its importance to both waterfowl and landbirds (14 special conservation status species!). The nomination of this site and efforts to restore the once spring-fed marsh complex have been led by dedicated birder/conservationist Doug Van Gausig, from Northern Arizona Audubon Society. Doug has brought together the National Park Service, State Parks, The Nature Conservancy, and Arizona Game and Fish in support of the IBA program, and continues to work for the restoration of Tavasci Marsh through Audubon’s facilitation of communication among all parties. Doug will be the Tuzigoot IBA team leader and will add new bird surveys to the monitoring program, in addition to the Christmas Bird Count and Migratory Bird Day Count he conducts at this site.

Page Springs Fish Hatchery, near Cottonwood, Arizona, is not just a hatchery, but a wonderful protected riparian area along Oak Creek. Here another key Audubon member, Roger Radd of Northern Arizona Audubon Society, has been instrumental in working with the hatchery to benefit birds, their habitat, and people visiting this important riparian site. Roger has worked with the hatchery manager to better handle the hatchery’s fish waste disposal needs. He has contributed to designing and building a birding/nature trail, interpretive signage, and compiling a bird checklist for the area. Most impressively, Roger organized the restoration of a wet meadow area where past grazing had suppressed cottonwood regeneration. He secured cottonwood saplings ("poles"), a backhoe, and Audubon volunteer labor to plant 200 trees in this area in one weekend! Roger conducts bird surveys at this site and other areas along Oak Creek. Working together through the IBA program we hope to link the Page Springs Hatchery with highly significant private property (with outstanding habitat), State Parks, and Forest Service lands together as an expanded Oak Creek IBA with dedicated management to benefit bird habitat.

Closer to home we are working on our first conservation easement with wonderful private landowners on the Lower San Pedro River, Carol and Mack Skeen. The Skeens are working to preserve their outstanding cottonwood/willow gallery forest and extensive mesquite bosque along a ¾ mile stretch of the San Pedro River. In the near future they hope to provide an environmental retreat center for youth and families from Tucson and Phoenix. They have been recognized for their efforts to restore and protect riparian habitat by the issuance of a Partners for Fish and Wildlife grant by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Five years of bird surveys have documented increasing presence of Southwest Willow Flycatchers, with three nests found this summer. Gray Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo now occur on their property. They fully support our IBA goals and they wish to partner with Tucson Audubon on future environmental programs and institutes. We hope to expand our efforts, and partnerships on the lower San Pedro, in hopes of aiding the restoration and protection of riparian habitat along this continentally important bird migration corridor.

In the months ahead the Arizona IBA program will expand our assistance to provide basic bird inventory and monitoring, on-site research to our partners, and assist with site conservation needs in our most important bird habitats in Arizona. In southern Arizona our focus areas include the Santa Cruz River, the Cienega Creek watershed and associated grasslands, the lower San Pedro, important drainages near Patagonia, key drainages of the Catalina and Rincon Mountains, and Tucson’s northwest side Sonoran Desert habitat connections. If you can contribute your skills to the IBA program, check out our web site, or call our offices. Last, you may want to participate in our October 27th Natural History/IBA Workshop at Aravaipa Canyon to learn more about our birds of conservation concern and how an IBA team works (see box on page 12).

Special note to Photographers: We are announcing the first Arizona IBA Photo Exhibit and Contest. Start taking pictures of the above identified IBAs and other sites listed on our website. Pictures should have been taken within the last 3 years (since January 1, 2000). All photos will be shown at the Tucson Audubon Holiday Dinner in December. Twelve photos will be selected and announced that night for a 2004 Arizona IBA calendar and an Arizona IBA poster celebrating our special bird areas in Arizona. Proceeds of the sale of the poster and calendar will benefit the IBA program, and photographers will be credited. The photos should be of birds and their habitat, or the outstanding habitat that can be found within an IBA (e.g., riparian, grassland, aspen, oak woodland, pine/fir forest, lush Sonoran Desert, cienega, bosque, major rivers, cliff habitat, or lakes). TAS member Dean Radtke will head a committee of three judges. 

AZ Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program Promotes “Birding for Conservation” at IBAs 
by Scott Wilbor
(Reprinted from April, 2002 Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of Tucson Audubon)

Yes, the IBA program is still pursuing Audubon members, birders, and others to nominate sites in Arizona as Important Bird Areas (contact Scott Wilbor, AZ IBA Program Coordinator, at 622-2230). But, there another equally important way you can help Arizona’s premiere bird habitats: “birding with a purpose” at these special sites!!

We want Audubon members in each Audubon chapter in Arizona to “adopt” IBAs within their region. We would like to form “site stewardship teams” (or individuals) to bird at local IBAs, ideally at least 4 four times per year, and to report on site and habitat conditions for the land manager. Two to three people are an ideal team (but this ideal can vary with the site and habitat). These surveys will collect important data on species distribution, abundance, and changes in avian community composition at these most important bird habitats. Additionally, we may then organize or help implement various site improvement, protection, education projects in cooperation with the land owner's, or manager’s, land management objectives.

What is an IBA? It is an ecologically discrete, conservation feasible, and management scale appropriate area of land, which meets bird and habitat criteria set by the Arizona IBA Scientific Review Committee, with program oversight by National Audubon’s IBA Director and National Technical Committee. Further site qualification specifics can be obtained from e-mailing the AZ IBA program.

<>Where do we want help? Below is a list of priority Tucson Audubon region IBAs we need help monitoring. There are also many potential IBAs, within the regions of the other eight Audubon chapters in AZ that we also wish to have “adopted.”

Tucson Audubon region potential IBAs:
1. Sweetwater Wetlands
2. Lower Santa Cruz River (Roger Road to Avra Valley Road)
3. Madera Canyon
4. Gardner Canyon
5. Happy Valley
6. Upper Canada del Oro (specific sites).
7. Lower San Pedro (specific sites).
8. Santa Catalina Mtns. (specific drainages).
9. Sonoita Creek (specific sites)
10. Empire Cienega
11. Arivaipa Creek
12. Middle Santa Cruz River (specific sites)
(some others are already underway)

What do we want you to do? To become the official IBA stewardship team/individual for an IBA you need to first contact us at through the Arizona IBA Program, at the Tucson Audubon Society, 622-2230. We will discuss where, when, and how you can help.

In a nutshell, we are promoting an “area search” method, which is easy, quick, and provides a good inventory, as well as provides quantitative data for species that is just one step beyond a “checklist” approach. Yes, it is fun! Basically, a bird survey consists of birding an area approximately 3 hectares (e.g., 200 meters by 150 meters), and recording all birds heard or seen in 20 minutes of searching. We would suggest birding 3 such plots in an area to provide a geographic “sample of the site.” Therefore, we are talking about a total of 1 hour (3 x 20 min.) actively searching for and recording birds. Data recording is easy! It’s like a Christmas Bird Count for each plot. Additionally, we will have you fill out a quick one page site stewardship form (fill in the blanks) to report on habitat condition, site problems or needs, human impacts, and any observed human uses that may impact avian habitat quality or birds.

We would request one person of the team to know well the local birds by sight and song that are likely to use the area . But, you don’t have to be an expert! You can get close to birds (of course following birding etiquette). You can “pish” to see birds (sorry no tapes). You can recognize birds by song alone (but you don’t have to if you can’t). You don’t have to have exceptional hearing. You can stop the clock and use your bird book. You can do it with friends. You are encouraged to do it with a friend(s)! You can mentor a beginning birder or include a non-birder (have them start by taking the data as you survey together). Lastly, it’s a great excuse to visit your favorite area in all seasons of the year! Remember, these are the best bird habitats in all of Arizona!! Some sites in Arizona may be the best passerine migration and breeding habitat (by density and diversity) in the western U.S.!!

We would like to understand bird use of these IBAs in all seasons, but consider breeding season our top priority. Thus, we would suggest 3 visits during the breeding season, and extra surveys (migration and wintering) on a site by site basis. Since, we promoting this statewide, and in varying habitats types and elevation, the best dates to survey will need to be determined site by site. Some sites may be primarily wintering sites, migration corridor or stop-over sites, or of seasonal importance, therefore we also will pursue individuals to conduct “area search” surveys for these areas at key seasons as well.

We want you out there! This is Audubon role in conservation at its best… birders doing what they enjoy to help in conservation of critical habitats…our Arizona Important Bird Areas!

Arizona’s Important Bird Area (IBA) Program
by Scott Wilbor
Tucson Audubon is leading an exciting new statewide program to inventory and catalog all natural areas in the state of Arizona for inclusion in an Arizona Important Bird Areas Program.  Arizona’s program is part of a world-wide program overseen by National Audubon in the United States and Bird Life International in areas such as Europe and Africa.  Audubon initiated the formation of state IBA programs in 1995, and has been working ever since to establish state-based programs in every state by 2003. 

There are now 33 state programs, with additional states coming on aboard all the time.  Arizona Department of Game and Fish initially began Arizona’s IBA program in early 2000.  Game and Fish was just beginning to initiate outreach when non-game funding and internal re-prioritization caused the department to let go of the program.  In early 2001 National Audubon put together a workshop and conference in the Everglades National Park in Florida to jump start and coordinate the direction of new programs across the country.  It was after this meeting that Arizona’s program began anew with coordination and leadership through the Tucson Audubon Society (Kevin Dahl provided oversight) and the support of an Arizona IBA Coordinator (Scott Wilbor).

The Arizona Audubon Council, comprised of members from each Audubon chapter in Arizona, also agreed the program was worth supporting and provided a small grant to begin activities in Arizona.  Other partners have now been established including the Arizona Department of Game and Fish, Non-Game Division; Arizona Partners in Flight (a professional group of avian biologists/managers); the Sonoran Joint Venture (a federal program to support coordinated research for avian conservation on an eco-region basis in the U.S. Mexico, and Canada); and local Arizona Audubon chapters.

What are Important Bird Areas?  They are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of birds.  These sites can be areas important for breeding, wintering, and/or for birds in migration.  They can be large, such as (relatively) intact landscapes (e.g., the San Rafael grasslands), or small such as disjunct meso-riparian lowland canyons, (e.g., Sycamore Canyon).  They can be on public, private, or mixed ownership lands. Generally, areas identified are distinct from surrounding lands, and can be managed in someway to conserve both the important avian species using them and the habitat upon which they depend.  Principally, Important Bird Areas are “natural” habitats, which can be managed for the conservation or enhancement of native biodiversity and their supporting ecological functions that comprise the ecological community of which they are apart.  Therefore, generally man-made structures, impoundments, and highly developed areas would not qualify (e.g., buildings, sewage treatment impoundments, golf courses, developed parks, active farmlands or orchards), but more permanent man-modified natural communities could qualify (e.g., man–modified/constructed lakes, wetlands, fields, and some reservoirs, as well as ranchlands and effluent supported riparian communities).

For sites to qualify as IBAs they must meet one of four science-based biological criteria.  These criteria are:  1)  Sites important to Endangered or Threatened species, or to special conservation status species in Arizona; 2)  Sites where significant numbers of birds concentrate for breeding, during migration, or in winter; 3)  Sites that contain rare or unique habitat or are an exceptional representative of ecological community type and that hold important avian species or species assemblages; and 4) Sites where there are long-term research or monitoring projects that contribute substantially to ornithology, bird conservation, and/or education.  Specific species, numeric criteria, representative habitats, and other criteria are outlined in the site nomination packet, "AZ IBA Program, Criteria for Site Selection."

The program follows through stages of site nomination, review of the nomination, formal submittal, identification of sites by a Scientific Review Committee (i.e., SRC, initial approval will be for 100 or so sites), prioritization of sites for formal designation, drafting of a Avian Habitat Conservation Plan for the site and the initiation of a science based monitoring program (potentially citizen-science based), and lastly, formal on-site designation and recognition to the landowner or managers.

What makes this program so special?  Number one, it is driven from the grassroots level.   It begins with the individual birder in the field collecting (or compiling) data, local chapter members with intimate knowledge of sites, or biologists working in these special areas.  These individuals or groups nominate local sites and later participate in on-site scientifically based monitoring of birds and habitats at the IBAs.  Number two, the program requires involvement by the landowner, IBA coordinator, the SRC, local biologist, and/or local Audubon chapter or nominating citizen(s) before the site is formally designated.  A formal designation  also requires the drafting of an Avian Habitat Conservation Plan formulated and agreed upon by the landowner and Scientific Review Committee.  Thus, each IBA has the local support, manager participation, and professional credibility to be supported and promoted by a variety of public agencies. 

Lastly, number three, it is a proactive, voluntary program that can bring future benefits in terms of recognition (and potentially) funds for good land stewardship, which ultimately can benefit local communities, their economies, wildlife habitats, and the ecological functions that birds bring to the landscapes of Arizona.

For those of you who want to become involved (e.g. in nominating sites or helping with data research), contact Scott Wilbor, Conservation Biologist/AZ IBA Coordinator, Tucson Audubon Society, TAS office in room 206, Historic “Y”, 5th Av. and University Ave. (520) 206-9900. 

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This page was updated on 02/21/06