Southwestern willow flycatcher keeps 'endangered' status

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service announced the southwestern willow flycatcher would keep its protection under the Endangered Species Act.

JIM RORABAUGH/USFWS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Posted Friday, January 5, 2018 6:00 am

By Cody Hooks

Ranching organizations in New Mexico that asked the federal government to remove a small bird from its list of endangered speeches received some disappointing news last week.

On Thursday (Dec. 28), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service announced the southwestern willow flycatcher would keep its protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau and New Mexico Wool Growers Inc. filed a petition in 2015 to have the bird removed from the federal list of at-risk species. The New Mexico organizations were joined by a building industry organization in California and represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm that has also litigated to overturn jaguar habitat designations in Southern New Mexico.

The groups challenged that the southwestern willow flycatcher is not a valid subspecies and argued that the bird no longer faced a variety of threats that put it on the endangered  list.

"An exhaustive review of the best available scientific information... led to the conclusion that the southwestern willow flycatcher is a subspecies protectable under the [Endangered Species Act]," according to the Thursday press release from the wildlife agency.

While some populations of the bird have made progress toward recovery, the bird and its habitat "are experiencing substantial threats."

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Declining male offspring further imperil endangered flycatchers in southern California

Date:  December 21, 2016
Source:  Central Ornithology Publication Office

A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications documents the steep decline of a population of endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers over 16 years -- and the change in the sex ratio that has left the birds' future hanging on a dwindling number of males.

Changes in sex ratios can cause problems in small, declining populations, reducing individuals' ability to find mates and reproduce. From 2000 to 2015, Barbara Kus of the U.S. Geological Survey and her colleagues monitored federally endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California, collecting data as the population declined from 40 individuals to only five. They found that the number of adult males was stable until 2004, but then began to decrease sharply until females outnumbered males at least two to one from 2012 on.

As the number of males plummeted, more and more of them became polygynous, mating with multiple females. Kus speculates that this may have prevented even faster declines. "It was particularly amazing to watch two or three males manage 10 or so females between them," says Kus. "They seemed to be able to increase their individual efforts such that every female was mated."



Continued

Scientists Concerned About Beetles' Effect on Rare Bird

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sep 7, 2016, 5:41 PM ET

It was a good plan: Bring in hungry beetles that feed only on nonnative salt cedar trees to get a handle on a hardy, invasive species that was crowding riverbanks across the West and leaching precious water from the drought-stricken region.

The beetles have been so successful in recent years that scientists are now concerned about the fate of an endangered songbird that lives along rivers and streams in several states.

A recent U.S. Geological Survey report provides more detail about habitat across the entire range of the Southwestern willow flycatcher. Using satellite modeling for the first time, the agency partnered with other federal scientists to predict new threats that could hamper the bird's recovery over the next decade.

By predicting the effects of tamarisk leaf beetles on the bird's habitat, the scientists hope satellite modeling can be used by land, water and wildlife managers as they try to balance protecting the bird with controlling the trees.

"Using this technology to evaluate how leaf beetle may affect flycatchers and its habitat across its range is a tremendous step forward in our understanding," said Greg Beatty, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Read on  

REGION: Bird given more habitat protections

The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher, a songbird that lives and breeds along the Santa Ana River and other streams in the southwest United States, was given additional habitat protections Wednesday, Jan. 2.

In all, 208,973 acres of habitat considered critical to the bird’s survival was designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The acreage is along 1,227 miles of streams and rivers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada.

The habitat designation does not prohibit development, affect land ownership or create a refuge, but it does require federal agencies that fund or permit activities on the land to consult with Fish and Wildlife to ensure critical habitat is not destroyed or adversely modified.

This is the third such designation for the migratory flycatcher in the past 15 years and is by far the largest. The last two expansions of critical habitat were the result of lawsuits by the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association and, most recently, the Center for Biological Diversity, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz.

Locally protected areas include the headwaters of the Santa Ana River in the San Bernardino National Forest and the river’s tributaries – Bear Creek, Mill Creek, Oak Glen Creek, Waterman Creek, San Timoteo Creek and Bautista Creek.

Steve Spangle, Fish and Wildlife field supervisor in Phoenix, said the revision was the result of better knowledge of the bird’s biology and habitat.

“One flood can take out a whole stand of willows and the habitat is lost. But willows grow so fast that in a few years they can be suitable (habitat) again,” he said.

The decision was lauded by Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

“It’s not just a benefit for the flycatcher, it’s a benefit for hundreds of wildlife species, plus people who depend on and enjoy southwestern rivers and streams,” he said.

Continued:  http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130102-region-bird-given-more-habitat-protections.ece

Plan OK'd to protect rare birds

ALAMOSA — Federal wildlife officials and local water and government officials finalized a plan Wednesday to protect a pair of rare birds, while allowing local farmers and ranchers to avoid more stringent provisions in the Endangered Species Act.

The San Luis Valley Regional Habitat Conservation Plan protects the southwestern willow flycatcher, which is listed as endangered by the federal government, and the yellow-billed cuckoo, a candidate for federal listing.

"We're happy to see our conservation partners in the San Luis Valley develop this plan that will allow people to sustain their rich tradition of working the fertile landscape of the valley while simultaneously contributing to the conservation of fish and wildlife in their own back yards," Noreen Walsh, an acting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regional director, said in a news release.

The flycatcher summers in the valley, establishing nests in the willows and smaller cottonwoods near wetlands and slow-moving or standing bodies of water.

Read the full story in our digital edition.

http://www.chieftain.com/news/region/plan-ok-d-to-protect-rare-birds/article_bb4722c4-350c-11e2-8d91-001a4bcf887a.html