Federal wildlife managers have proposed setting aside a vast area across seven Western states as critical habitat for a rare songbird.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made public its recommendation Thursday for the Western Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.
If approved, the designation would affect activities that involve federal funding or permitting along hundreds of miles of rivers and streams from Arizona and New Mexico north to Idaho.
A threatened species, the cuckoo travels each spring and fall between its breeding grounds in Mexico and the U.S to its wintering grounds in Central and South America, often using river corridors as routes.