At first glance, the South Lubec mud flats don’t seem like much of a tourist attraction.

But these tidal environments have harbored as many as 25,000 shorebirds during the annual fall migration.

Birds with colorful plumage and even more colorful names, such as the blackbellied plover, semipalmated sandpiper and lesser yellowleg gather in a riotous mass to feed off the Atlantic’s bounty.

“Eastern Washington County is really spectacular,” avian ecologist Norman Famous said Thursday. “There are internationally important populations of some kinds of shorebirds.”

Such sites also could become havens for ecotourists – bird watchers and naturalists – if the locations are protected under a new conservation initiative known as the Important Bird Areas (IBA) program.

Over the next year, scientists from the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and volunteers from Maine Audubon Society will be asking other Mainers to help them identify areas in their communities that they believe are important bird habitats.

“This is just the very first step in a whole new conservation and education package,” Tom Hodgman, a wildlife biologist with the DIF&W said Thursday.

Hodgman is working with Judy Walker, staff naturalist for Maine’s Audubon chapter, to spearhead the IBA effort.

Important bird areas are habitats that are essential for bird survival. They may range in size from less than one acre to tens of thousands of square miles.

Since a conservation group called BirdLife International founded the IBA program in Europe nearly 20 years ago, 156 nations around the world have identified more than 6,000 critical habitat sites.

“It’s not a new idea, but it’s on a huge scale,” Hodgman said.

In the United States alone, 1,200 IBAs have been listed. Maine is the 43rd state to join the program.

Organizers hope to identify about 100 sites in Maine, ranging from the seaside nesting areas of endangered piping plover to grasslands that provide shelter for thousands of songbirds.

“The Important Bird Areas are sort of the cream of the crop sites,” Walker said.

She expects that the final list of IBAs will include every county, and is depending on local people to identify possible sites.

“Local people know their region better than we do,” Walker said, speaking from her Falmouth office Wednesday. “You might not even know who owns the land, but if you can show it to me on a map, you can nominate it.”

Biologists anticipate that the list will include some places already known to birders worldwide, such as the peregrine falcon nesting grounds on Precipice Cliffs at Acadia National Park and the puffin colony on Machias Seal Island.

“Some of the sites will be no-brainers,” Walker said.

But even the backyard marshes where hunters place their blinds for ducks and geese might constitute an important bird area, Hodgman said.

Organizers have agreed on a list of general criteria that all Maine IBAs must meet. Any area that provides habitat for one of the 15 endangered species found in Maine or one of the 53 additional species that are cited on the DIF&W conservation concern list will automatically be considered.

Areas where large numbers of birds of any species congregate will be targeted.

Finally, areas such as the Lubec flats or the Fields Pond Nature Center in Orrington, which provide habitat for a great diversity of species, may be designated as IBAs.

Once nominations are made, a technical committee of biologists and ecologists will review all sites and make the final, difficult decisions of what’s in and what’s out.

“If we looked at every site where one of these species is seen, we would probably designate the whole state,” Walker said with a laugh.

Before any site is included on the IBA list, however, the landowner will be contacted and asked to participate. The listing carries no legal weight, and it is completely voluntary, she explained.

“We’re hoping it will help people see the value in preserving their land,” Walker said. “We’re involving them from the beginning and keeping them informed.”

Designating an undisturbed habitat as an IBA has encouraged developers to consider birds’ needs in other states. Organizers predict the same result in Maine.

“This is a proactive effort,” Hodgman said. “We’re not waiting until a shopping mall comes in, then saying, ‘Oh, wait, this is a really important site.'”

In Vermont, where the program is 4 years old, the IBA designation has given conservation groups a voice in land-use planning, Mark LaBarr, conservation and stewardship director for Vermont Audubon, said Wednesday.

“The IBA designation has allowed us to have a seat at the table,” he said.

Local land trusts may pursue conservation easements on IBA land in private hands, but the program is not a land-grab, Walker said.

Landowners could actually gain grant money for the maintenance of their land as a habitat, Hodgman added.

IBA organizers are also dreaming of an ecotourism industry that could draw birders and other naturalists to Maine. A network of IBAs can be marketed to the thousands of bird fanatics who travel the world filling their logs.

“It’s such an invisible thing, nobody thinks it generates that much money, but it really does,” Hodgman said.

A recent survey of American Birding Association members indicated that the average birder had spent more than $3,000 on birding trips within the past year.

“Communities could be involved in building little cottage industries around this,” he said. “A cluster of hot birding sites can be a real benefit to a local community.”

Involving Maine people in avian conservation is the program’s main goal. Every step, from nominating the sites to serving as stewards of IBA once they’re established, will be a volunteer effort, Walker said.

“The more people are aware of the species in their area, the more excited they’re going to be about it, and the more they’ll understand the importance of conservation,” she said.

For more information, contact Walker at 781-2330 or visit http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/me.html