The mountain plover - a small, brown bird that breeds in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains - doesn't warrant a spot on the endangered species list, federal officials announced Wednesday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the species isn't threatened in its nesting or breeding range. Officials estimated that the plover breeding population is more than 20,000 - double the number cited in a 2002 bid to list the bird as endangered.
The migratory mountain plover breeds in the short-grass prairie and shrub-steppe landscapes of the Rocky Mountain states from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and winters in California, Texas, Arizona and Mexico.
Environmentalists contended that the mountain plover's numbers had been dropping across its range and estimated that there are 5,000 to 11,000 left.
Officials at WildEarth Guardians said in 2009 the bird's population had declined more than 90 percent. The drop has been mostly due to the conversion of land in the birds' nesting or breeding range to agriculture, the group said.
A federal wildlife report released earlier this year said grassland birds, like the mountain plover, have been consistently declining in the United States, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance said. The alliance also cited a study by NatureServe, a conservation organization that estimated the mountain plover is presumed locally extinct in two of the 13 western states that are within its range.
The alliance and WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit in 2006 seeking protection for the birds, and federal officials last year agreed to reconsider the plover's status - the second time the mountain plover has been considered for the endangered species list.
But federal officials said their research found the threats against the bird and their habitats aren't as serious as initially believed. The agency made its decision following a review of scientific information and public comments.
Ken Morgan, a state private lands coordinator with the Colorado Division of Wildlife said private land owners and scientists worked together in a voluntary incentive based program to see if agricultural development was causing the decline of the species. The plover nests on short-grass prairie and disturbed soils and needs 30 percent barren ground for nesting, he said.
"Fish and Wildlife was going to list the bird on the endangered species list in part because they thought agricultural practices were hurting populations," Morgan said. "Private land owners trusted us enough and found that agricultural land provides good land and nesting."
Federal authorities said the mountain plover's ability to breed and winter in widespread ranges contributes in part to its security. They said the birds have adapted to human activities and were using the disturbed ground from cultivated fields to nest.
The Associated Press