With the nation's energy industry still sputtering in the post-Recession economy, the Obama administration is pitting the fate of one wild chicken against oil and gas drilling, the operation of wind farms and other activities in five central and southwestern states.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday it is placing the lesser prairie chicken on a list of threatened species, a step below "endangered" status that will provide greater flexibility in determining protections for the bird under the Endangered Species Act.

Dan Ashe, the agency's director, told the Associated Press he assumed the decision would be attacked by the governors of the five affected states -- Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico -- but defended the move as following the best science available.

"The lesser prairie-chicken is in dire straits," Ashe said in an AP story. "The bird is in decline and has been in decline for more than a decade."

A type of grouse known for its colorful feathers, the lesser prairie chicken has lost more than 80 percent of its traditional habitat, mostly through human activity that has indeed included oil and gas drilling, as well as ranching and the construction of power lines and wind turbines, explained Ashe. Equally important, the bird, which averages between 1-1/2 and 2 pounds, has been seriously affected by the region's continuing drought.

The prairie chicken's population across the five involved states declined last year to fewer than 18,000 birds -- about half of the estimated population in 2012.

The five states last year adopted a conservation plan to boost numbers of the prairie chicken to 67,000 birds.

The new listing goes into effect about May 1 and will include a special provision that allows officials and private landowners in the five affected states to manage conservation efforts and keep operating oil and gas drilling and utility line maintenance covered under the conservation plan.

Developed by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the conservation blueprint asserts that conservation efforts carried out through usual agricultural and energy development are not subject to further regulation under the Endangered Species Act.

Oil and gas companies, ranchers and other landowners have promised to dedicate more than 3 million acres in the five states to conserving the bird's habitat, which the AP reports they hoped would stave off the government's decision to list the bird as threatened.