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The National Audubon Society and Audubon South Carolina are working to identify a network of sites that provide critical habitat for birds. This effort is known as the Important Bird Areas Program (IBA). Audubon South Carolina recognizes that habitat loss and fragmentation are very serious threats facing birds around the world. The IBA program is a global effort to identify areas that are most important for maintaining bird populations, and focus conservation efforts at protecting these sites.

Audubon South Carolina is working to identify places within our State that are critical to birds during some part of their life cycle i.e. breeding, wintering, feeding or migrating. Each IBA nominee is submitted to a review process and, with the voluntary cooperation of the landowner, becomes designated as important to birdlife in South Carolina.

Audubon South Carolina's IBA Program has designated thirty-two sites as Important Bird Areas. The designated sites comprise nearly 1,000,000 acres and represent most of South Carolina's major habitat types, from the southern Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic coast.

Click here to view criteria for an IBA (461 kb, Adobe PDF); click here to download a nomination form (73 kb, MS Excel).

To Learn More About Audubon South Carolina's Important Bird Areas Program Contact:

Ann Shahid, Important Bird Areas Coordinator
Audubon South Carolina
336 Sanctuary Road
Harleyville, SC 29448
(843) 462-2150

Click here to view the map of IBAs in South Carolina as a PDF file (845 kb).