Laden with oil from the BP spill, a brown pelican attempts takeoff on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana, on June 4.

The oil threat is weighing especially heavily on Louisiana’s state bird. “The brown pelican was just pulled off the endangered species list, and they are sitting on nest in the barrier islands … the first point of contact for oil,” Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative of the National Audubon Society, told National Geographic News in late April.

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