Group Seeks Protection of Tricolored Blackbird

Harvesting and plowing should be prohibited or at least delayed in areas where the tricolored blackbird breeds, an environmental group said Friday in asking for immediate protection for the species.

The blackbird population appears to be in fine shape because thousands of the birds often flock together, said the Center for Biological Diversity. The bird looks like the red-winged blackbird but behaves differently.

California has more than 99% of the population, which once numbered in the millions. But the center, in petitions to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Game, said the numbers have dropped drastically in the last decade, continuing a 70-year decline blamed largely on practices at Central Valley dairy farms.