Ibarra began field recording kulintang gong music in the Philippines in 2004. In 2007, she received an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to research indigenous and folkloric music in the Philippines. Ibarra and Roberto Juan Rodriguez researched, recorded, and filmed seven endangered indigenous tribes in the Philippines from 2008 to 2009 and documented the conservation efforts on behalf of the near extinct Philippine eagle. In 2009, they founded Song of the Bird King to concentrate on the preservation of indigenous music and ecology.