Threatened Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Could Have 500,000-Acre Critical Habitat

The yellow-billed cuckoo that lives in the western U.S. has been categorized as a threatened species to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials announced today.

The migratory bird, which lives in 12 western states and in Mexico and Canada, has seen reduced numbers in the last few decades due to damaged habitat, dam construction and other factors, the Associated Press reported.

The American Bird Conservancy puts the yellow-billed cuckoo's numbers nationwide at around 350 to 495 pairs. Arizona has the biggest population, while Oregon, Washington and Montana haven't had any recent yellow-billed cuckoo sightings.

Dams, livestock, river channelization and other habitat disruptions have proven devastating for the cuckoo, which breeds in forests of cottonwood and willow. Conservationists have been fighting to protect the bird under the Endangered Species Act since 1998, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in August that 500,000 acres in nine western states be designated as critical habitat for the species. The proposal should be finalized next year.

"Yellow-billed cuckoos were once common along rivers all over the West, but because of our poor treatment of western rivers, they're now found in just a handful of places," Noah Greenwald, director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.

"With just a little more care, we can restore the rivers the cuckoo needs to survive, benefiting not just this unique songbird, but hundreds of other plants and animals and people too."

Conservationists hope that a portion of southern Arizona that is home to a large part of the bird's population will additionally be protected.

"We're gonna have to look at the federal actions that affect the cuckoo, such as grazing," Steve Spangle, who manages the Fish and Wildlife's ecological services field office in Arizona, told the AP. "We're looking forward to working with all the agencies on how we can help the species. It's doing pretty well in Arizona."