The red-cockaded woodpecker’s population had dwindled to around 1,470 clusters when federal officials decided to classify the bird as endangered back in 1970.
But decades of efforts to preserve the species’ habitats have substantially increased the bird’s numbers.
The repopulation effort was so successful, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, that late last month the federal government changed the status of the bird from endangered to threatened.
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