An environmental group says a rare bird that breeds in San Diego and at the Salton Sea should be listed as endangered. The group says the western gull-billed tern's breeding sites face several threats.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the western gull-billed tern as an endangered species.
Tierra Curry is a biologist with the Center.
She says the gull-billed tern's breeding site at the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge is threatened by a Fish and Wildlife Service plan.
Curry says the Service wants to protect two birds that are listed as endangered -- the western snowy plover and the California least tern - by destroying the eggs of the gull-billed tern.
"Because the western gull-billed tern isn't officially protected under the endangered species act, in their efforts to protect these other two birds they're trying to reduce the population of the gull-billed tern because it preys on the chicks of the other endangered species," Curry says.
She says other threats to the gull-billed tern include falling water levels and pollution at the Salton Sea and habitat loss.
