May 6, 1991 – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received a petition from the International Council for Bird Preservation to list the Esmeraldas woodstar as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
December 16, 1991 – The Service made a positive 90-day finding on the petition.
March 28, 1994 – The Service published a 12-month finding on the 1991 petition, determining that the Esmeraldas woodstar warranted listing but that protection was precluded due to other listing priorities.
January 12, 1995 – The Service reiterated its “warranted-but-precluded” finding for the Esmeraldas woodstar.
2003 – The Center sued the Service over its delay in issuing proposed listing rules for 73 rare foreign birds in need of protection, including the Esmeraldas woodstar.
May 21, 2004 – The Service published an annual notice continuing to find that the species warranted listing but that protection was precluded due to other priorities.
April 23, 2007 – The Service published yet another annual notice finding that the species warranted listing but was precluded from protection.
July 29, 2008 – The Service published an annual notice finding that the species warranted listing and announcing that the agency would promptly publish a proposed listing.
June 16, 2009 – The Center and the Fish and Wildlife Service reached a settlement agreement requiring the Service to submit to the Federal Register a proposed listing rule for the species by June 30, 2009.
July 7, 2009 – The Service finally proposed to list the Esmeraldas woodstar as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
October 29, 2013 – In response to the decades-old listing petitions and a series of lawsuits by the Center, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally designated four rare bird species from Colombia (the blue-billed curassow, brown-banded antpitta, Cauca guan and gorgeted wood-quail) and one Ecuadorian hummingbird species (Esmeraldas woodstar) as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.