A vulnerable sparrow with a soft voice got a big shoutout Wednesday in a new Endangered Species Act lawsuit.
Citing existential threats that include climate change and coastal development, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition in April 2024 to list the saltmarsh sparrow as threatened or endangered under the ESA. In its follow-up lawsuit filed Wednesday, the environmental group reported that the Fish and Wildlife Service missed its April 22, 2025, deadline for responding to the petition.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized that these sparrows are facing extinction and we’re suing to force the agency to do something about it,” Ryan Shannon, a senior attorney at the Center, said in a statement, adding that “without the protection of the Endangered Species Act, the saltmarsh sparrow’s whisper-like song could disappear forever.”
The orange and black-striped bird inhabits coastal salt marshes of the eastern United States, living as far north as Maine during warm months and migrating as far south as Florida during the winter.
