The National Audubon Society and BirdLife International have recognized the Citrus County Spoil Islands at the mouth of the Cross Florida Barge Canal and multiple tracts comprising the Big Bend Ecosystem as Globally Significant Important Bird Areas (IBA).
“Global IBAs encompass the most important places on earth for the protection of globally endangered bird species such as the Piping Plover and the Cerulean Warbler,”said Marianne Korosy, Ph.D., Audubon’s Important Bird Area Coordinator.
The Citrus Spoil Islands and the Big Bend Ecosystem IBAs are critically important to nesting, migrating and wintering shorebirds. Flocks in the thousands stop here to feed and rest during their epic journeys to and from the Caribbean and South America.
The Big Bend Ecosystem IBA encompasses tidal mudflats, mangrove islands, oyster rakes, tidal marsh, and upland flatwoods and scrublands spanning Dixie and Levy counties. The IBA includes the Big Bend Wildlife Management Area, Cedar Keys and Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuges, Cedar Key Scrub Preserve and Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Parks.
About 1,500 increasingly rare American Oystercatchers from as far away as New York and New Jersey spend the winter on IBAs on the Nature Coast each year. Oystercatchers are listed as Species of Special Concern by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“Audubon coordinates closely with state agencies to highlight and protect the value of these places to nesting birds,” said Mark Rachal, Audubon’s Coastal Islands Sanctuaries Manager.
The greatest threat to birds is disturbance to feeding and resting birds by recreational boaters and fishermen that land boats or waverunners on the islands and flush birds, causing them to waste valuable stores of energy they need for migration and keeping warm during cold winters. Unleashed dogs flush parents from nests which can kill unhatched eggs and tiny chicks exposed to the hot summer sun.
“American Oystercatchers, Wilson’s Plovers, and Least Terns nest on the Citrus Spoil Islands between March and August where they are protected from raccoons, but they are still vulnerable to people that unknowingly land boats on the islands and disturb the nesting birds and flightless chicks.”
Coastal erosion and projected sea level rise threaten to reduce habitat available for nesting and resting shorebirds and also would cover oyster rakes with deeper water, decreasing availability of those food resources for overwintering and nesting birds.
Global IBAs are the most important sites for birds on aninternationalscale, measured by a rigorous set of scientific criteria and peer-reviewedby a panel of international bird experts. With the addition of this IBA, there are now 42 Global IBAs identifiedinFlorida. Only California, with 81 Global IBAs, exceeds Florida in the number of Global IBAs.
