The state granted emergency protections to the tricolored blackbird, a once common sight in the Central Valley whose population has plummeted 60 percent in the past six years.
The California Fish and Game Commission voted 3-2 to ban killing, harassing or otherwise harming the medium-sized birds for the next 180 days. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife will decide whether to make the protections permanent.
“I’m relieved and happy they did this. Better late than never,” said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned for the protections in October. “Let’s hope this makes a difference.”
Tricolored blackbirds, which are native to California, once numbered in the millions in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. Their numbers have declined steeply in the past decade or so due to habitat loss and pesticides, and one county — Colusa — recorded no nesting tricolored blackbirds this year for the first time in history.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/State-orders-emergency-protections-for-tricolored-5933014.php