The Feingold legislation currently has 24 cosponsors in the Senate. All of the cosponsors are Democrats.

Birders United Action Alert: Tell your senator that you support the revision to the Clean Water Act that will help protect isolated wetlands from developers.

Scientists believe that drought has reduced the number of fish that prey on the food sources of wood storks and other wading birds, leaving more food available for the birds.

Cook's Petrel

The Obama administration has decided not to list the Cook’s petrel as an endangered species. The seabird lives off the coast of New Zealand. In 2007 the Bush administration had proposed listing the foreign species. But Fish and Wildlife Service biologists now say that updated information shows that the bird is not as rare as was believed in 2007 when the listing was first proposed.

The Obama administration has decided to proceed with listing 14 other foreign birds under the Endangered Species Act. Such designation gives added worldwide publicity to the birds’ status and prohibits the importation of the birds or any parts of the birds to the United States.

The foreign birds listed as endangered or threatened include the Galapagos petrel and the Heinroth’s shearwater, two birds that were first proposed for protection 30 years ago. Also listed as threatened foreign species are six birds from South America: the ash-breasted tit-tyrant, the Junin grebe, the Junin rail, the royal cinclodes, the white-browed tit-spinetail, and the Peruvian plantcutter.

Asian birds proposed for protection are the greater adjutant, Jerdon’s courser, and the slender-billed curlew. Two South Pacific birds — the Marquesan imperial-pigeon and the Eiao Polynesian warbler — are also proposed to be listed as threatened. Also, the FWS proposed that Spain’s Cantabrian capercaillie be protected.

And what is most alarming is that no one seems to know why the population of these birds is in sharp decline. The Golden-Winged Warbler Working Group is an international consortium trying to discern why there are fewer birds. Scientists from Canada, the United States, and Colombia are working on the mystery.

Scientists are capturing the birds in nets and examining the biochemical makeup of the birds’ feathers in an attempt to determine if there are any environmental toxins that may be contributing to the birds’ decline.

The bad news is that the bird’s breeding ground is in war-torn Afghanistan. The war and a weak central government in Kabul makes it almost impossible to set aside safe habitat for the bird. About 20 of the birds were observed in a remote mountain region near the nation’s border with China.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that as few as 500 of the birds remain. The bird’s remaining habitat is limited to a 19-square-mile area.

But now a drug that has been used to replace the banned substance has also been found to have entered the vulture’s food chain and is suspected of also being toxic to the birds.