important bird areas
- IBA Program in Montana
- Featured Montana IBAs:
- Species of Special Concern
greater sage-grouse ibas
2010. We have five Important Bird Areas that focus on Greater Sage-Grouse and sagebrush-shrub steppe lands. These are large landscape-level IBAs encompassing over 6 million acres of public and private lands across Montana. These sights were selected for the high densities of male sage grouse at breeding leks in the state.
We are in the process of determining what are most strategic actions are to encourage sage-grouse conservation and educate Montanans about the importance of these IBAs for a suit of sage-associated bird species.
Head back to our homepage if you have yet to watch this great sage-grouse movie.
For details of the nomination process and criteria used to create these IBAs, see our report >>
You can download a pdf map of each of these IBAS or link to the site description here;
- Beaverhead Sage-steppe map (761 KB)
Beaverhead site description - Bridger Sage-steppe (634 KB)
Bridger site description - Glaciated Prairie Sage-steppe (535 KB)
Glaciated Prairie site description
- Powder/Carter sage-steppe (518 KB)
Powder/Carter - Mussellshell Sage-steppe (735 KB)
Mussellshell site description
Download the shape file for these five IBAs here: Sagezip
Our key sagebrush-shrubsteppe areas are very similar to the "Core Areas" determined by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. You can download their Core Area Boundaries here: corezip
For more about the sagebrush-shrubsteppe habitat see the ISSUES - SAGE section of our website HERE >>
For information contact: Amy Cilimburg, Director of Bird Conservation, 406-465-1141