The Important Bird Areas of Florida - National Audubon Society

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The Important Bird Areas of Florida: 2000–2002 – Pranty – 2-Jul-02 12present to a wide audience an “avian resource inventory” of Florida's IBAs, identifying which siteswere selected, why they are important, how the public can assist to preserve bird populations,and—in many cases—where human and resource management can be improved to benefit nativebirds and their habitats. Perhaps this resource-based concept will be adopted to map areas critical toother groups of Florida's flora and fauna (e.g., “Important Sea Turtle Areas,” “Important Butterfly Areas,”or perhaps “Important Orchid Areas”).This edition of The Important Bird Areas of Florida: 2000–2002 presents the initial 99 sitesselected as IBAs in the state. Site nomination began in February 2000 and initially was planned to end inDecember 2000, but nominations were accepted through June 2002 to allow many more of the state'spotential IBAs to be nominated formally. Nonetheless, potential IBAs unrecognized in this bookundoubtedly exist in Florida, and ornithologists, birders, land managers, foresters, Audubon members,and others should keep these sites in mind when the revision of this book is planned (probably around2005). With the massive amount of habitat destruction occurring in Florida, as well as the various landacquisition programs that constantly are bringing significant natural areas into public ownership or underperpetual conservation easement, IBA site selection and review in Florida should occur frequently.IBAs and private propertyThe IBA Coordinator could not be expected to identify thousands of private properties thatdeserve to be preserved; to contact the land owners to determine their interest in preservation; and finallyto receive their consent to include the properties within designated Important Bird Areas. Rather, theFlorida IBA Program has relied on government agencies and conservation organizations to identify theseproperties, primarily through the State's “Conservation and Recreation Lands,” “Florida Forever,” and“Save Our Rivers” land acquisition programs. However, the inclusion of non-public lands in the IBAProgram is vital, since nearly half of the state remains in private ownership, and IBA designation of someprivate properties may result in public acquisition or improved management. Florida's IBA Programrequired land owner approval for all properties specifically mentioned by name in this book, butobviously not for all properties mapped—some state acquisition projects included within IBAs containliterally thousands of landowners. Private lands targeted for preservation have been added to Florida'sIBAs when they were adjacent or close to existing conservation lands—many IBAs consist of a corepublic ownership surrounded by private properties sought for public acquisition or perpetual conservationeasement (e.g., the Myakka River Watershed or Florida Keys Ecosystem IBAs). However, in a fewinstances when significant supporting avian data have been provided, the IBA program has recommendedthe preservation of private lands that have not been identified by others (e.g., the Alachua Lakes, andOsceola Flatwoods and Prairies IBAs). On the other hand, we suppressed the inclusion of a highlysignificant ranch from the Lake Wales Ridge IBA on the recommendation of a member of the State’sAcquisition and Restoration Council, who feared that the IBA Program might somehow interfere with ongoingattempts by others to publicly acquire the property.It is hoped that the recommendations made herein will be embraced by the agenciesresponsible for acquiring private lands, for managing public lands, and for enforcing laws designedto protect the state's floral and faunal resources. Contact information for the primary conservationagencies and organizations in Florida is found on pages 27–28.The “Important Birding Areas” ProgramThere was some confusion about the purposes and goals of the IBA Program. Some individuals referredto the IBA Program as the “Important Birding Areas” Program, and thought that its purpose was to denoteworthwhile birding sites. These individuals nominated as IBAs sites that typically were small city orcounty parks that provided opportunities for birding or environmental education, but did not supportsignificant populations of any species. The majority of these sites were not accepted as IBAs, although afew sites were designated if they were deemed important to populations of birds, rather than to a few
The Important Bird Areas of Florida: 2000–2002 – Pranty – 2-Jul-02 13individuals, or that contained a diversity of Neotropical migrants that seemed significant. For informationon birding sites in Florida, see A Birder’s Guide to Florida +(Pranty 1996a), or visit the website for theGreat Florida Birding Trail: .Site SelectionMETHODSThe Florida IBA Coordinator, assisted by the Executive Committee and other biologists, prepared thecriteria for site selection. These criteria followed those used by IBA programs around the world, but weremodified specifically for circumstances in Florida. Because many bird populations in the state aresurveyed periodically (e.g., Bald Eagle nests and many larid colonies annually, Piping Plovers every fiveyears, and wading bird rookeries every 10 years), the Florida IBA Program developed stringent siteselectioncriteria emphasizing specific, recent avian data significant at the statewide level. Four primarycategories were used to select Florida's IBAs, and all designated areas met the criteria of at least one ofthese. A fifth—and secondary—category, for long-term avian research, could be used only in conjunctionwith one or more of the primary categories. Florida’s site selection criteria are listed below; bird names inquotation marks denote subspecies.CATEGORY 1: Sites that support significant populations of Endangered or Threatened birds.This category contains all birds on the “official” list of Endangered or Threatened species or subspecies,maintained by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC; +FGFWFC 1997). Wemake one exception to this list: the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is listed as Federally Endangered but onlyState Threatened (and is currently proposed for down-listing to Special Concern); for IBA purposes, theRed-cockaded Woodpecker was considered Endangered. A “significant” population was defined asmeeting or exceeding 1% of the total statewide population (Table 1) of any listed species. Nominatedsites that met this criterion for any Category 1 birds were designated as IBAs.1a: FFWCC Endangered species or subspeciesWood Stork, Snail Kite, Peregrine Falcon, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, “Florida” GrasshopperSparrow, and “Cape Sable” Seaside Sparrow.1b: FFWCC Threatened species or subspeciesBald Eagle, Crested Caracara, “Southeastern” American Kestrel, “Florida” Sandhill Crane, SnowyPlover, Piping Plover, Roseate Tern, Least Tern, White-crowned Pigeon, and Florida Scrub-Jay.CATEGORY 2: Sites that support significant populations of other birds of conservation priority.This category contains all birds considered by the FFWCC to be of “Special Concern,” as well as birdson the lists of the Florida Committee on Rare and Endangered Plants and Animals (FCREPA; +Rodgerset al. 1996), the Partners In Flight Watch List and/or Audubon WatchList, as well as three other birds ofconcern chosen by the Florida IBA Executive Committee because they do not appear on any other list.FCREPA species listed in Category 2 are only those not listed by the FFWCC in Category 1. For WatchList species, the Executive Committee chose to concentrate on those with significant breeding orwintering populations in Florida; those species occurring largely as migrants can occur in a wide varietyof habitats, and are much more difficult to prioritize on a site-by-site basis. The definition of a significantpopulation is the same as for Category 1 species or subspecies, but statewide counts or estimates (Table1) are not available for many of the birds in Category 2.
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(25) *pickerelweed (Pontedaria cord
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