Bird Likely to Get Protected Status Today : Wildlife: Secretary Babbitt is expected to declare the gnatcatcher threatened but allow some leeway for builders. Projects could go ahead if preserves are set aside.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is expected today to declare the California gnatcatcher a threatened species but also propose some leeway for building on the bird’s nesting grounds.

The long-awaited announcement is to be made this morning by Babbitt at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington before an audience of national environmental activists, developers and the media.

Environmentalists had asked the Interior Department for a more severe endangered status for the tiny Southern California songbird. But an advance, undated copy of the department’s decision, obtained Wednesday night, shows the bird is “listed as threatened throughout its entire range.”

According to the document, Babbitt will order the bird protected under the Endangered Species Act. But he also is proposing special rules that would allow landowners and builders to avoid the delays and strict restraints of the law.

Developers could be exempted from the law if they set aside large preserves for the bird and other rare species under a voluntary conservation program created by the Gov. Pete Wilson’s Administration in 1991.

It is uncertain whether Babbitt has made changes in rules contained in the recent but undated document. But developers, environmentalists and state officials said they believe Babbitt will add the bird to the nation’s list of protected species with the proposed special conditions, which must be aired during a 60-day review period.

But even during the review period, the bird’s habitat will be protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Listing the bird as threatened makes harming or harassing it, or damaging its nesting grounds, a violation of federal law.

Interior Department spokesman Jay Ziegler refused to reveal Babbitt’s plans regarding the gnatcatcher.

The document suggests that Babbitt’s decision on the gnatcatcher will incorporate Wilson’s program in which alliances of developers, environmentalists, local planners and biologists are writing plans to create preserves of coastal sage scrub that ensure the survival of the gnatcatcher.

“The (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service recognizes the significant efforts undertaken by the state of California through the Natural Communities Conservation Planning Act of 1991,” the document says.

The document adds that “certain land-use activities . . . would not be a violation” of the act, as long as landowners have created a conservation plan under Wilson’s program.