Ord Irrigation Area Important Bird Area

The establishment of irrigated farmland has formed perennially moist areas of cumbungi and native wetland grasses, which support larger numbers of several bird species than does the surrounding non-irrigated bushland and dry pasture.

[1] The irrigation and drainage infrastructure was constructed in the early 1960s, with commercial farming taking place from 1963 when Kununurra's Ord Diversion Dam was completed.

Farm blocks are typically 260-360 ha in size, on heavy, black cracking clay soils.

[1] The IBA supports the largest recorded numbers of star finches and yellow-rumped munias, as well as smaller number of Australian bustards, Bush stone-curlews, white-gaped and yellow-tinted honeyeaters, white-browed robins, masked and long-tailed finches, and sometimes over 1% of the population of Australian pratincoles.

Letter-winged kites, white-quilled rock-pigeons, varied lorikeets, northern rosellas, bar-breasted and banded honeyeaters are occasionally recorded.