Click here to read the entire article in the Wilmington Star News by Gareth McGrath. 

A robin-sized shorebird that's one of the world's great travelers and stops in coastal North Carolina during its long-distance migrations has been declared a threatened species by federal regulators.

But local officials are hoping the red knot's new designation doesn't cause too much disruption to coastal activities deemed vital to maintaining the region's economy, including beach nourishment and inlet dredging projects.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week added the Atlantic Coast population of the red knot to the federal Endangered Species Act. The move was made due to the precipitous decline in the shorebird's numbers in recent decades, with some researchers estimating the species population has plummeted in 20 years from nearly 150,000 to as few as 20,000 today.

"The red knot is a remarkable and resilient bird known to migrate thousands of miles a year from the Canadian Arctic to the southern tip of South America," Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe said in a release. "Unfortunately, this hearty shorebird is no match for the widespread effects of emerging challenges like climate change and coastal development...."

Walker Golder, deputy director of Audubon North Carolina, said the red knot uses North Carolina's "natural" beaches and inlets – such as Lee/Hutaff and Masonboro islands, Rich Inlet and, further north, the Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras national seashores – as stopover habitat during its spring and fall migrations.

"Those areas, those islands have just what the birds need," he said.

And that's lots of invertebrates, such as coquina clams and mole crabs, to gorge on.