In a win for environmental groups, a federal judge in Austin has rebuffed an effort by Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush to lift habitat protections for the golden-cheeked warbler, a Central Texas songbird found in Travis County and roughly two dozen other counties.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks affirmed a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reject a petition to take the bird off the endangered species list in 2016.

In his federal lawsuit, Bush argued that the federal agency had not fairly considered the petition to delist the species.

But Sparks wrote that Bush failed to show that “the Service ignored evidence in the petition to delist.”

The decision was welcomed by environmental groups.

“It’s simply too soon to remove protections for the warbler, which continues to lose habitat to urban sprawl,” Nicole Netherton, Travis Audubon executive director, said in a statement after the decision, which was handed down late Wednesday. “Central Texas is the only place in the world where golden-cheeked warblers are born and raised, and continued protections will help encourage their breeding success for years to come.”

Bush’s lawsuit had argued that special habitat protections, including development restrictions, are no longer necessary because the golden-cheeked warbler's population has recovered since the bird was listed as endangered nearly three decades ago.

If successful, the lawsuit could have opened a broad swath of Central Texas — including western Travis County — to increased development and road building.

“We’re thrilled that this cynical attempt to take protection away from the warbler has been stopped,” said Ryan Shannon, a staff attorney at the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity. “With the continued protection of the Endangered Species Act, hopefully this Texas native will charm birders from all over the world for a long time to come.”

Filed in Austin federal court, the lawsuit sought an order invalidating the warbler's designation as an endangered species, arguing that a 2015 Texas A&M University study concluded that there are 19 times more warblers spread over a habitat that is five times larger than was known when the bird was listed as endangered.

The study shows that warbler protections are based on a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the bird's population, the lawsuit said.

The A&M study also formed the basis of a 2015 petition that sought to remove endangered species protections for the golden-cheeked warbler that had been filed by former state Comptroller Susan Combs and property rights organizations.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act, rejected the petition in 2016, saying an agency analysis determined that the warbler is not recovering and that 29 percent of the bird's nesting habitat had been lost from 1999 to 2011.

"Due to ongoing, widespread destruction of its habitat, the species continues to be in danger of extinction throughout its range," the agency said at the time.

Other biologists have criticized the Texas A&M study, finding methodology mistakes that led federal regulators to conclude that it overpredicted the number of warblers by as much as tenfold.

The lawsuit was prepared by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Austin, on behalf of the General Land Office, which oversees state property that includes warbler habitat.

The General Land Office's original complaint said the value of property owned by the state near San Antonio had suffered because it includes warbler habitat.

Bush did not return a request for comment, but his office sent a joint statement from the General Land Office and the Texas Public Policy Foundation that said, in part, "The removal of the golden-cheeked warbler would restore the rights of land owners to effectively manage our own properties, without oversight from the federal bureaucracy."

Robert Henneke, an attorney at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the American-Statesman that "the decision highlights the difficulties that exist in challenging decisions by the federal government.”

Combs, who, as state comptroller had once described proposed endangered species protections as "incoming Scud missiles,” was named last year to a Trump administration post overseeing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service.

Henneke said that, despite the change in administrations in Washington during the dispute, the Fish and Wildlife Service's position has not changed.

He said the matter of an appeal is under discussion.