Comment Period Extended for Cuckoos

DENVER (AP) — The government shutdown has led the Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the public comment period on a proposal that yellow-billed cuckoos found in the West be listed as threatened.

Steve Segin, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, noted Friday that the opening of the original public comment period coincided with the government shutdown last fall. The deadline, originally in December, was this week extended to April 25.

The service proposes listing the bird as threatened in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, and Washington in the United States and in Canada and Mexico. The Denver Post reported Friday that the bird's numbers dropped from the thousands across the West to only 500 breeding pairs today, with 10 pairs in Colorado.