Alan Schmierer/Creative Commons
December 14, 2016
In the late 1980s the future for the black-capped vireo, a striking songbird that breeds only in Oklahoma and Texas and northernmost Mexico, looked bleak. Only about 350 birds were known to survive in a few locations. Following the bird's listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1987, the Service began working with the states of Oklahoma and Texas, the U.S. Army, private landowners and non-governmental organizations to protect and recover the vireo. .