Little Egg Harbor

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Important Bird and Birding Areas

IBBA Site Guide

Little Egg Harbor

Ocean County

Coordinates: N 39.58157
W 74.27544

Site Map

Atlantic Coast: New England / Mid-Atlantic Coast

Area: 27,778 Acres

Habitat: Open waters including several salt marsh and beach islands

Site Description: A component of the Barnegat Bay complex, a regionally significant coastal area throughout the year, Little Egg Harbor consists of an expansive area of open water and several islands of salt marsh and beach habitat. Little Egg Harbor is bordered almost entirely on the west by the tidal salt marshes of Edwin B. Forsythe’s National Wildlife Refuge and by the dense residential development of Long Beach Island along its eastern shores. The site contains the Manahawkin Bay Natural Heritage Priority Macrosite, designated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as some of NJ’s most significant habitats. The importance of the area to birds was evident even to its earliest visitors. In 1614, the Dutch sailor, Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, impressed by numerous observations of nesting birds, named the area Eyre Haven or “harbor of eggs.”

IBA Criteria:

Criterion	Species
Conservation Concern – State-endangered (B)	Black Skimmer
Conservation Concern – Conservation Priority (W)	American Black Duck, Greater Scaup
Significant Congregations (W)	Waterfowl


Greater Scaup	Kevin Watson

Birds: The waters and islands of Little Egg Harbor are extremely important to the state-endangered Black Skimmer as well as many species of colonial waterbirds. As many as 25,000 migrating and wintering waterfowl are prevalent during the cold winter months. Concentrations surpassing 4000 each of Buffleheads, Brant, American Black Ducks and Greater Scaup are common throughout winter.

Conservation: With intense residential development characterizing its eastern shores, the water quality of Little Egg Harbor is plagued by nonpoint sources of pollution from human related activities such as lawn and garden maintenance, automobile use and septic systems. Boats and personal watercraft disturb colonial waterbird colonies and interfere with foraging throughout the marshes. Where appropriate, these activities should be limited or regulated. Educational programs about the origins of nonpoint source pollution may also help to improve water quality.

Additional Information: Site Report


Little Egg Harbor	Ben Wurst