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Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are exactly what their name implies: places or habitats that are essential for bird populations. A global initiative of BirdLife International, implemented by ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ and local partners in the United States, IBA is an effort to identify and conserve areas that are vital to breeding, migrating, and wintering birds. Because habitat loss is the most serious threat facing bird species across North America and around the world, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s IBA program is a site-based initiative to address habitat loss through community-supported conservation. 

To date, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ has identified 2,758 IBAs (more than 150 of them from Alaska) covering 417 million acres of public and private lands in the United States. Due to the vast, intact habitats in Alaska, there are more globally significant IBAs in this state than in any other.  

They include Teshekpuk Lake/Dease Inlet in the Western Arctic, Bristol Bay (a collection of 27 IBAs that hosts the world’s greatest concentration of seabirds), the globally significant Izembek-Moffet-Kinzarof Lagoons, Safety Sound near Nome, and Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve—home to the largest gathering of Bald Eagles in the world.