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Whether it’s trilling its distinct “fitz-bew” song, constructing its tiny, cup-like nest, or swooping from a willow to catch insects over a desert stream, the southwestern willow flycatcher is an image of grace and beauty. The bird reminds many of a miniature sentry, saluting with its quick wing movements and always on the watch for a bug to eat. But the destruction of the Southwest’s streamside forests is robbing this subspecies of its arboreal lookout stations — not to mention its breeding and nesting grounds. Today, the beautiful songbird is one of North America’s most endangered.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR LISTED: 1995
CRITICAL HABITAT: 120,824 acres in Arizona, southern California, southeastern Nevada, New Mexico, and southwestern Utah designated in 2005
RECOVERY PLAN: 2002
RANGE: Breeds in southern California, Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, southern Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, and possibly northern Baja California and Sonora, Mexico (very rare if present); winters from southern Mexico to northern South America
THREATS: Water projects, urban and agricultural sprawl, livestock grazing, global warming, brown cowbird parasitism, replacement of native habitats by introduced plant species, vegetation clearing, and fire
POPULATION TREND: Prior to its listing as an endangered species in 1995, the southwestern willow flycatcher was declining dramatically throughout its range. Between 1993 and 2005, the number of known territories increased from 140 to 1,214, but much of the increase was due to expanded survey effort. The actual recent population trend is not known.
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SAVING THE SOUTHWESTERN WILLOW FLYCATCHER
One of the first imperiled animals advocated for by the Center, the southwestern willow flycatcher has suffered more than a century of steady decline. Because of livestock grazing, dams, water withdrawal, and urban and agricultural sprawl, the bird has lost more than 90 percent of the southwestern riparian habitat it needs to survive. On top of these problems, as the bird’s habitat is fragmented, it becomes more and more vulnerable to nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds and nest predation by other species. Currently, breeding sites are widely scattered and isolated, and most include fewer than five pairs.
The Center and its allies petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the flycatcher under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. When the Service refused to process the petition, the Center filed a series of lawsuits that forced the agency to list the flycatcher as endangered in 1995 and to designate more than 600 miles of southwestern rivers as critical habitat in 1997. In 2001, this designation was struck down by the courts for having an inadequate economic analysis, but the next year the Center filed suit to reinstate critical habitat. The Service protected 120,824 acres for the bird in 2005 — but this was more than 250,000 acres less than was proposed.
Since the flycatcher’s listing, the Center has also won an injunction protecting a critical flycatcher population at Lake Isabella, California; convinced the U.S. Forest Service to remove cattle from several hundred miles of rivers in Arizona and New Mexico; produced a pivotal report on the status of the bird; helped develop a federal recovery plan; and presented papers at scientific conferences. Also, in 1996 we filed suit against the Bureau of Reclamation for failing to analyze the effects of enlarging Arizona’s Roosevelt Dam, which was to flood out the state’s largest flycatcher population. In 2000, we reached a landmark settlement with the U.S. Forest Service to protect 50 endangered species — including the flycatcher — in California’s four national forests.
But the destruction of flycatcher habitat continues, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has issued many permits for the taking of the bird since its listing. In addition, the species’ 2005 critical habitat designation — made under corrupt former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald — is woefully inadequate, protecting less than half the 376,095 acres originally proposed for designation. In August 2007, the Center filed a notice of intent to sue the Bush administration for this and 54 other illegal Endangered Species Act decisions, but in November the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that it didn’t find evidence to warrant changes in the southwestern willow flycatcher’s critical habitat decision, saying it was “scientifically supportable.” The Center will continue to help the species by working against destructive water projects, mining and drilling, overgrazing, and urban sprawl — and by working for the protection of the habitat the flycatcher needs.
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Contact: Kierán Suckling
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