| Short-eared owl / Sean Gray |
The selection of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) has been a particularly effective way of identifying conservation priorities. IBAs are key sites for conservation – small enough to be conserved in their entirety and often already part of a protected-area network. They do one (or more) of three things:
Hold significant numbers of one or more globally threatened species
Are one of a set of sites that together hold a suite of restricted-range species or biome-restricted species
Have exceptionally large numbers of migratory or congregatory species
Regional Important Bird Areas
African Important Bird Areas
Americas Important Bird Areas
Asian Important Bird Areas
European Important Bird Areas
Middle Eastern Important Bird Areas
Pacific Important Bird Areas
Antarctic Important Bird Areas
Marine Important Bird Areas