Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter says the federal government’s latest weapon trained on the shale oil and gas industry is an unassuming, somewhat colorful 1.6-pound chicken.

The secretive Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, about a 10th the size of an average Thanksgiving turkey, is known as the lesser prairie chicken. Wildlife authorities considered it an at-risk bird, according to the Audubon Society.

Porter doesn’t have anything to say against the bird. His beef is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which has formally announced plans to list the fowl as an ...