WASHINGTON— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the red-cockaded woodpecker has recovered enough to be downlisted from endangered to threatened.

The woodpecker once lived across much of the southeastern United States, from Virginia to Florida to Texas, in the region’s formerly extensive long-leaf pine forests — one of the largest and most diverse habitats in North America. The bird was federally listed as endangered in 1970 after the vast majority of these forests were lost to logging, urban and agricultural sprawl, and fire suppression.

“These beautiful birds are making an incredible comeback thanks to the Endangered Species Act,” said Will Harlan, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Decades of active management by local, state and federal agencies have paid off, but a lot more still needs to be done to protect the long-leaf pine forests these woodpeckers and hundreds of other species call home.”

While other woodpeckers excavate cavities in dead trees, red-cockaded woodpeckers bore holes for nests solely in living pine trees that are generally 60-80 years old. Unfortunately, long-leaf pine ecosystems are now among the most endangered systems on earth.

In addition to the loss of long-leaf pine forests, red-cockaded woodpeckers are threatened by climate change, including increasingly severe and more frequent storm events throughout their range, sea-level rise, and rising temperatures. Most recently, Hurricane Helene wiped out 18 nest cavity trees in just one area in Florida.