South Arm Important Bird Area

The South Arm Important Bird Area is a disjunct tract of mainly intertidal land on the eastern outskirts of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

The site comprises several separate tidal inlets, with a collective total area of 46 km2, that together form a diverse and extensive system of wetlands providing habitat for large numbers of waders, or shorebirds.

[1] The wetland system has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports well over 1% of the global population of pied oystercatchers.

[1] The Sorell Causeway and the rocky shoreline of Pitt Water have the largest concentration of the endemic viviparous sea star Patiriella vivipara.

The saltmarsh around Barilla Bay is one of the few Tasmanian localities of the rare chequered blue butterfly (Theclinesthes serpentata).