The coastal black-throated green warbler was one of the first birds that Will Harlan learned to identify growing up, and he later taught it to his children.
“It is stunningly beautiful. This bright, vibrant yellow head is visible as it flashes through the forest,” said Harlan, who lives in North Carolina. “It also has this beautiful song, a really recognizable song. Its song used to fill the forests, and now those forests are silent.”
He rarely, if ever, hears the warbler’s song anymore. The coastal species’ population has fallen by 90% over the past few decades, with fewer than 2,000 birds remaining.
A lawsuit filed this week claims the federal government has failed to protect the species. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not acting on the nonprofit’s 2023 petition to list the warblers as federally endangered.
“We can't wait any longer. This bird, frankly, can't wait any longer,” said Harlan, Southeast director and senior scientist with the center. "It urgently needs to be listed and it's running out of time.”
The coastal birds, known as Wayne’s warblers, are a genetically distinct subspecies of black-throated green warblers. They stay close to the coast, dwelling solely in the wetland forests of Virginia and the Carolinas.
It’s “one of the country’s rarest and most imperiled bird subspecies,” the nonprofit writes in its legal complaint, filed in the District of Columbia’s District Court. The group claims the government violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to timely respond to its prior request.
The Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment on the litigation.
The federal listing process begins when members of the public petition for a specific animal to be reviewed. The Fish and Wildlife Service then uses “the best scientific and commercial data available” to assess whether listing is appropriate, the agency states on its website.
Some species are deemed “threatened,” meaning they’re likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. Endangered animals are considered at risk of extinction.
Government officials are supposed to provide a preliminary response to petitions, indicating whether a listing could be warranted, within 90 days. The Center for Biological Diversity filed its petition to list Wayne’s warblers in November 2023.
Harlan said the process often takes much longer than prescribed because of limited federal staffing and funding. The average time to list a species is now more than a decade.
“That's unacceptable, especially for a critically imperiled bird like this one,” he said.
Once found commonly along the coast, up to central Virginia, Wayne’s warblers are now restricted to a handful of strongholds, including the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
The birds rely on Atlantic cedar and bald cypress trees to forage and nest.
“These are wetland forests along the coast that have been drained, developed and destroyed over the past century,” Harlan said.
In North Carolina, that includes growing impacts from the wood pellet, or “biomass,” industry, which cuts down trees and processes wood into pellets sent mostly to Europe to fuel power plants as a substitute for coal or oil.
Coastal forests are also threatened by climate change, such as sea level rise pushing saltwater farther inland, killing trees not equipped to handle it.
Saving Wayne’s warblers means protecting critical habitat that also serves humans, Harlan said. Coastal trees help reduce flooding and pollution.
The warblers are considered a “species of greatest conservation need” by the state.
Federally listing the species would prompt officials to create a recovery program and require future development or industry in its habitat to minimize or mitigate impacts.
“We know what's happening,” Harlan said. “And we can take action right now to save this bird from spiraling further toward extinction.”
