The U.S. Forest Service has honored California University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Carol Bocetti and her team with the 2016 Wings Across the Americas Bird Conservation Partnership Award.

The award was presented to the Kirtland’s warbler recovery team, a partnership of public agencies and private organizations that has worked to save the endangered songbird species.

This is the second time that Bocetti has received a national award for her efforts on behalf of the Kirtland’s warbler. In 2011 she was honored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for her work as recovery team leader, a role she has held since 2006.

She also received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2013 Recovery Champion award for her work with the Delmarva Fox Squirrel Recovery Team.

“It is very gratifying to be recognized as a team,” said Bocetti, who teaches in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Cal U. “It has always been a collaborative effort.”

The Kirtland’s warbler, which breeds only in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, was one of the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. In 2015, the population was estimated at 2,366 pairs, the largest ever recorded for the species and 10 times larger than when the species first was protected.

The songbird was soon may be considered for “delisting” as an endangered species, which means the emphasis would shift from recovery to sustainability.