The National Audubon Society has awarded Global Important Bird Area status to the Conservancy's Piney Grove Preserve in Sussex County, Virginia.

Through this designation awarded in early 2009, the international birding community recognizes Piney Grove’s growing population of red-cockaded woodpeckers as significant to the conservation of a vulnerable species, as classified by BirdLife International and the IUCN.

"National Audubon and the Virginia Important Bird Areas program are proud of the efforts to help recognize this site as globally important for bird conservation, and grateful to The Nature Conservancy for all the good work being done on Piney Grove,” writes Mary Elfner, Virginia IBA coordinator, in Audubon's announcement.

The organization also recognized the preserve’s importance to breeding birds characteristic of pine savanna habitat, including the brown-headed nuthatch, chuck-will’s widow, prairie warbler, Eastern wood-pewee, and pine warbler.

To learn more about the designation, go online to the Virginia Important Bird Area program.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Robert B. Clontz/TNC (Red-cockaded woodpecker relocated to Piney Grove); Photo © Robert B. Clontz/TNC (Prescribed burn at Piney Grove).