CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A judge in Boise, Idaho, has extended the deadline for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to submit an endangered species finding for the greater sage grouse.

The deadline had been Friday. Attorneys for Fish and Wildlife requested a one-week extension after agency Director Sam Hamilton died last weekend.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted the request Thursday.

The deadline stems from a lawsuit filed by an Idaho group, Western Watersheds Project, seeking protection of sage grouse as an endangered species.

Sage grouse are found in Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California and the Dakotas. Biologists say the chicken-size has been in decline due to loss of its sagebrush habitat.

Copyright 2010 The AP.