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Related: About this forumSpeak Out for Critically Endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers E-ACTION
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More here: http://www.audubonaction.org/site/News2?abbr=aa_&page=NewsArticle&id=6916&pgwrap=n&autologin=true&utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2016-05-12-advisory#skip_interests
Southwestern Willow Flycatchers have lost 90-95 percent of their historic habitat and are struggling to survive. (Photo: Scarlett Howell/USGS)
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Yet another endangered birdthe Southwestern Willow Flycatcheris under attack by developers and others who prize the habitat that this struggling species needs to survive. As you read this, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a petition from developers to remove the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher from the Endangered Species List.
More than 21,000 Audubon advocates have already voiced their opposition to this petition, but we need every voice we can get in this fight. The deadline to submit comments is this Monday, May 16.
A small grayish-green perching bird, the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher continues to struggle for survival on river and streamside habitat in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, where it has already lost 90-95 percent of its historic habitat. Based on recent bird surveys coordinated by various state and federal agencies, fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher exist throughout its range. Now is not the time to delist a species that clearly has not recovered and is subject to further loss and degradation of important riparian habitat.
National Audubon Society's climate change analysis predicts the Willow Flycatcher (all subspecies included) to be threatened by climate change; and specifically predicts "84 percent loss of current summer range by 2080, with a major northward movement of the range."
The recent delisting petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relies on a single deeply-flawed study claiming that the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher is not a genetically unique subspecies, which has been debunked by avian experts.
At the time the bird was listed as endangered in 1995, an expert panel convened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed that the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher is a distinct subspecies worthy of protection, and there is nothing in this latest petition that casts doubt on that determination.
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Speak Out for Critically Endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers E-ACTION (Original Post)
Omaha Steve
May 2016
OP
Goblor
(163 posts)1. Southwestern Willow Flycatchers...
I worked on this project a few years ago, helping to locate breeding pairs and active nests on the Lower Colorado River. Climate change may now be a threat, but add to that water diversion projects and the impact of the non-native tamarisk (salt cedar) and parasitic cowbirds. Field work and the associated data collection is not easy...