Protections for 4-inch California gnatcatcher hinder plans for Palos Verdes housing development.

The coastal bird has been on the threatened-species list for more than 25 years, providing its natural habitat certain protections by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Those protections, in turn, have run afoul of housing developers for years; a judge, for example, dismissed a case earlier this year that attempted to have the bird removed from the designation.