Two of the nation's largest bird conservation groups today released their WatchList 2007, a collection of the most imperiled birds. The list by Audubon and the American Bird Conservancy includes 178 species in the continental U.S. and 39 in Hawaii.

Members of the two groups said this morning in a teleconference with reporters that the largest threats to the birds are global warming and habitat loss. They said that by planting native plants in your own back yard, people can help by creating habitat for some of the birds.

The WatchList also includes the most imperiled of the imperiled. They include the tricolored blackbird, a species that sometimes nests in the San Jacinto Valley. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a year ago denied federal protection for the tricolored blackbird but in September announced a conservation agreement with environmental groups aimed at helping the species.

The decline of tricolored blackbirds in California, once one of the most common species, has gone hand-in-hand with the loss of 90 percent of the state's wetlands, their main nesting grounds, to development or farmland. Some birds have adapted to building nests in silage crops at dairies, but they can be chewed up by harvesting machines before the chicks can leave the nest.

A flock of tricolored blackbirds landed more than a year ago at a dairy in the San Jacinto Valley instead of the nearby San Jacinto Wildlife Area. Audubon California and the Inland chapter paid a dairy farmer $13,000 to delay harvesting by a month. Developer and landowner groups later reimbursed Audubon.

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