Photo by T.B. Ryder, USFWS.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a “formal notice of intent” to sue the US Fish & Wildlife Service for failing to make a decision on its 2010 petition to protect the Bicknell’s thrush as an endangered species. This action covers Bicknell’s thrush habitat areas from the Catskills to Maine and includes the Adirondack Park. The Center is headquartered in Richmond, Vermont, but has staff in regional offices across the US.

Here’s the Center’s press release.

The Bicknell’s Thrush has long been a species of concern in the Adirondack Park. It’s a bird with a unique breeding habit and requires specialized habitat for survival. It breeds in the high elevation forests of the northeast US and Canada and migrates to the Caribbean for winter. For breeding, one female will mate with several males. This means that one nest of eggs will have several fathers, which is helpful because the males supply food to the nesting chicks. In this strategy several males usually support one nest.

The threats to the Bicknell’s thrush are from development and forest fragmentation as well as habitat transformation due to climate change.

Here’s are the key documents organized so far by the Center for Biological Diversity:

2013 Notice of Intent
2012 90-day finding that the Bicknell’s Thrush may warrant protection
2010 Federal Endangered Species Act Petition