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The Center for Biological Diversity reached a settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service late Monday giving the agency four years to consider whether to protect the Bicknell’s thrush under the Endangered Species Act.
The thrush nests only high in the mountains of the U.S. Northeast and eastern Canada, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Scientists have predicted that 98 percent or more of the songbird’s U.S. habitat could be lost to climate change.
“The Bicknell’s thrush is a canary in a coal mine,” said Mollie Matteson, a wildlife biologist and Northeast representative at the Center in a statement to the press. “Protecting this bird under the Endangered Species Act will help to preserve its future — and help sustain the mountain landscapes we depend on for clean water, flood mitigation, recreation and beautiful scenery.”
Scientists have documented annual population declines of nearly 20 percent in parts of the bird’s range, and widely accepted climate models show that a 6 degree increase in Northeast temperatures will virtually eliminate the species’ habitat in the United States.
In response to a petition from the Center, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found in 2012 that the Bicknell’s thrush may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Center sued when the agency failed to make a final decision within one year, as the Endangered Species Act requires. Under Monday’s agreement the Bicknell’s thrush will receive a protection decision in fiscal year 2017.
The thrush is one of 10 species that the Center prioritized for protection this year under a 2011 multi-species settlement agreement with the Service. That landmark settlement is expediting protection decisions for 757 species and has already resulted in final protection of 109 plants and animals and proposed protection for another 61. Monday’s agreement gives the Bicknell’s thrush a place in the line of species awaiting protection decisions.
Bicknell’s thrushes are olive-brown, migratory birds that nest in dense, coniferous forests near timberline in the Northeast and also breed in Quebec and Canada’s Maritime provinces. Scientists first recognized them as a distinct species in 1993.
Photo by T.B. Ryder, USFWS.
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The danger to the Bicknell’s thrush is not just loss of habitat; it includes your local cat “collector” all along their migration route.
In my neighborhood there is a woman that feeds feral cats; over twenty of them. The town animal control comes by but the problem is never resolved. The tragic part is she wonders where all the cats come from!
I personally found at three of these beautiful birds dead in my backyard. They had stopped to eat the seeds in my garden and were killed by cats. I know because I caught the culprit and it dropped the bird.
Good news!
Couple questions:
Why does it take 4 years?
If it is then listed as endangered what measures will be taken to protect the bird?
“Under Monday’s agreement the Bicknell’s thrush will receive a protection decision in fiscal year 2017.”
That’s three and one-half years away! The world could be ended by then what with the way our leaders keep bending every which way but loose for those special interests whose money manipulates them,their policies,their ego’s,their bank accounts…. Poor Bicknell’s thrush…they don’t stand a chance.No species alive does.