The
Ivory-billed Woodpecker (
Campephilus
principalis) is one of several species whose numbers have
dwindled to the point where it is uncertain whether any remain. The
species is listed as
critically
endangered and possibly
extinct by the
International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The American Birding
Association lists the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as a Class 6 species,
a category they define as "definitely or probably extinct."
Reports of
at least one male Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas
in 2004 were
investigated and subsequently published in April 2005 by a team led
by the Cornell Laboratory of
Ornithology
(Fitzpatrick et al., 2005). No
definitive confirmation of those reports emerged, despite intensive
searching over five years following the initial sightings.
In June 2006, a $10,000 reward was offered for information leading
to the discovery of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker nest, roost or
feeding site. In December 2008, the Cornell lab of ornithology
announced a reward of $50,000 to the person who can successfully
lead a project biologist to a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
In late
September 2006, a team of ornithologists from Auburn
University
and the
University of
Windsor
published reports of their own sightings of
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers along the Choctawhatchee River
in northwest Florida
, beginning
in 2005 (Hill et al., 2006). These reports were
accompanied by evidence that the authors themselves considered
suggestive for the existence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. Searches
in this area of Florida through 2009 failed to produce definitive
confirmation.
Despite these high-profile reports from Arkansas, Florida, and
elsewhere in the historic range of the species since the 1940s,
conclusive evidence for the continued existence of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker remains lacking (e.g. there are no unambiguous
photographs, videos, DNA from feathers or feces, or a specimen). To
protect any possible surviving individuals, land acquisition and
habitat restoration efforts were initiated.
Description
The contrast in plumage of the male
(above) and female (below).
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker ranks among the largest woodpeckers in
the world and the largest in the United States.
The closely related
and likewise possibly extinct Imperial Woodpecker (C.
imperialis) of western Mexico
is, or was,
the largest woodpecker. The Ivory-billed has a total length
of about 20 inches (50 centimeters) and, based on very scant
information, weighs about 20 ounces (570 grams). It has a
30 inch (75 centimeters) wing span.
The bird is shiny blue-black with white markings on its neck and
back and extensive white on the trailing edge of both the upper-
and underwing. The underwing is also white along its forward edge,
resulting in a black line running along the middle of the
underwing, expanding to more extensive black at the wingtip. In
adults, the bill is ivory in color, chalky white in juveniles.
Ivory-bills have a prominent crest, although in juveniles it is
ragged. The crest is black in juveniles and females. In males, the
crest is black along its forward edge, changing abruptly to red on
the side and rear. The chin of an ivory-bill is black. When perched
with the wings folded, ivory-bills of both sexes present a large
patch of white on the lower back, roughly triangular in shape.
These characteristics distinguish it from the smaller and
darker-billed
Pileated
Woodpecker. The Pileated normally is brownish-black, smoky, or
slaty black in color. It also has a white neck stripe but the back
is normally black. Pileated juveniles and adults have a red crest
and a white chin. Pileateds normally have no white on the trailing
edges of their wings and when perched normally show only a small
patch of white on each side of the body near the edge of the wing.
However, Pileated Woodpeckers, apparently aberrant individuals,
have been reported with white trailing edges on the wings, forming
a white triangular patch on the lower back when perched. Like all
woodpeckers, the ivory-bill has a strong and straight bill and a
long, mobile, hard-tipped, barbed tongue. Among North American
woodpeckers, the ivory-bill is unique in having a bill whose tip is
quite flattened laterally, shaped much like a beveled wood
chisel.
The bird's drum is a single or double rap. Four fairly distinct
calls are reported in the literature and two were recorded in the
1930s. The most common, a kent or hant, sounds like a toy
trumpet often repeated in series. When the bird is
disturbed, the pitch of the kent note rises, it is repeated more
frequently, and is often doubled. A conversational call, also
recorded, is given between individuals at the nest, and has been
described as
Kent-Kent-Kent.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is sometimes referred to as the
Grail Bird, the
Lord God Bird, or
the
Good God Bird, all based on the exclamations
of awed onlookers. Other nicknames for the bird are
King of
the Woodpeckers and
Elvis in
Feathers.
Habitat and diet
Ivory-billeds are known to prefer thick hardwood swamps and pine
forests, with large amounts of dead and
decaying
trees. Prior to the
American Civil War, much of the
Southern United States was covered in
vast tracts of
primeval hardwood
forests that were suitable as habitat for the bird.
At that
time, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker ranged from east Texas
to North Carolina
, and from southern Illinois
to Florida and Cuba
.
After the Civil War, the
timber industry
deforested millions of acres in the
South, leaving only sparse isolated tracts of suitable
habitat.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker feeds mainly on the
larvae of wood-boring
beetles,
but also eats
seeds,
fruit, and other
insects. The
bird uses its enormous white bill to hammer, wedge, and peel the
bark off dead trees to find the insects. Surprisingly, these birds
need about 25 km² (10 square miles) per pair so they can
find enough food to feed their young and themselves. Hence, they
occur at low densities even in healthy populations. The more common
Pileated Woodpecker may compete
for food with this species.
Breeding biology
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is thought to pair for life. Pairs are
also known to travel together. These paired birds will mate every
year between January and May. Before they have their young, they
excavate a nest in a dead or partially dead tree about 8–15 m
up from the ground. Usually two to five
eggs are laid and incubated for 3 to
5 weeks. Both parents sit on the eggs and are involved in
taking care of the chicks, with the male taking sole responsibility
at night. They feed the chicks for months. About five weeks after
the young are born, they learn to fly. Even after the young are
able to fly, the parents will continue feeding them for another two
months. The family will eventually split up in late fall or early
winter.
Status
Heavy logging activity exacerbated by
hunting by collectors devastated the
population of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the late 1800s. It was
generally considered extinct in the 1920s, when a pair turned up in
Florida, only to be shot for specimens.
By 1938,
an estimated 20 individuals remained in the wild, some 6-8 of which
were located in the old-growth forest called the Singer Tract in
Louisiana
, where logging rights were held by the Chicago Mill
and Lumber Company. The company brushed aside pleas from four
Southern governors and the National Audubon Society
that the tract be publicly purchased and set aside
as a reserve, and clearcut the forest. By 1944 the last
known Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a female, was gone from the cut-over
tract (
Smithsonian p 98).
Reported sightings: 1940s to 1990s
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was listed as an endangered species on
March 11, 1967, though the only evidence of its existence at the
time was a possible recording of its call made in East Texas.
The last
reported sighting of the Cuban subspecies
(C. p. bairdii), after a long interval, was in 1987; it
has not been seen since. The Cuban Exile journalist and
author John O'Donnell-Rosales, who was born in the area of Cuba
with the last confirmed sightings, reported sightings near the
Alabama Coastal Delta in 1994 but these were never properly
investigated by State wildlife officials.
Two
tantalizing photos were given to LSU
museum director George Lowery
in 1971 by a source who wished to remain anonymous but who came
forward in 2005 as outdoorsman Fielding Lewis.
The photos, taken with a cheap
Instamatic
camera, show what appears to be a male Ivory-billed perched on the
trunks of two different trees in the
Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana. The bird's
distinctive bill is not visible in either photo and the photos -
taken from a distance - are very grainy. Lowery presented the
photos at the 1971 annual meeting of the
American Ornithologists Union.
Skeptics dismissed the photos as frauds, believing that the bird
seen is either a misidentifed
Pileated, or - seeing that the bird is
in roughly the same position in both photos - a mounted
specimen.
There were numerous unconfirmed reports of the bird, but many
ornithologists believed the species had
been wiped out completely, and it was assessed as "extinct" by the
International Union for
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1994. This
assessment was later altered to "critically endangered" on the
grounds that the species could still be extant.
2002 Pearl River expedition
In 1999,
there was an unconfirmed sighting of a pair of birds in the
Pearl River
region of southeast Louisiana by a forestry
student, David Kulivan, which some experts considered very
compelling. In a 2002 expedition in the forests, swamps,
and bayous of the Pearl River Wildlife
Management Area by LSU, biologists spent 30 days searching for the
bird.
In the afternoon of January 27, 2002, after ten days, a rapping
sound similar to the "double knock" made by the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker was heard and recorded. The exact source of the sound
was not found because of the swampy terrain, but signs of active
woodpeckers were found (i.e., scaled bark and large tree cavities).
The expedition was inconclusive, however, as it was determined that
the recorded sounds were likely gunshot echoes rather than the
distinctive double rap of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Since 2002, most of the attention in the search for the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker has turned away from the Pearl River
region, although several unconfirmed sightings have been reported
there since February 2006, see
video
clips.
2004/2005 Arkansas reports
A group
of seventeen authors headed by the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology
reported the discovery of at least one Ivory-billed
Woodpecker, a male, in the Big Woods area of Arkansas in 2004 and
2005, publishing the report in the journal Science on April 28, 2005
(Fitzpatrick et al., 2005).
One of
the authors, who was kayaking in the Cache River
National Wildlife Refuge
, Monroe County, Arkansas
, on February 11, 2004, reported on a website the
sighting of an unusually large red-crested woodpecker.
This
report led to more intensive searches in the area and in the
White River National Wildlife
Refuge
, undertaken in secrecy for fear of a stampede of
bird-watchers, by experienced observers
over the next fourteen months. About fifteen sightings
occurred during the period (seven of which were considered
compelling enough to mention in the scientific article), possibly
all of the same bird. One of these more reliable sightings was on
February 27, 2004. Bobby Harrison of Huntsville, Alabama and
Tim Gallagher of Ithaca, New York,
both reported seeing an ivory-billed woodpecker at the same time.
The
secrecy of the search permitted The Nature Conservancy and Cornell
University
to quietly buy up Ivory-billed habitat to add to
the 120,000 acres (490 km²) of the Big Woods protected by the
Conservancy.
A large woodpecker was videotaped on April 25, 2004; its size, wing
pattern at rest and in flight, and white plumage on its back
between the wings were cited as evidence that the woodpecker
sighted was an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. That same video included an
earlier image of what was suggested to be such a bird perching on a
Water Tupelo (
Nyssa aquatica).
The report also notes that drumming consistent with that of
Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been heard in the region. It describes
the potential for a thinly distributed population in the area,
though no birds have been located away from the primary site. A
current concern is that many bird enthusiasts will rush to the area
in an attempt to catch a glimpse of this rare bird. Ornithologists
and veteran birders tell of adult woodpeckers abandoning their
nests and young out of alarm at the encroachments of
overenthusiastic birdwatchers.
In the fall of 2006, researchers developed and installed an
"autonomous observatory" using robotic video cameras with image
processing software that detects and records high resolution video
of birds in flight inside a high probability zone in the Cache
River area. As of August 2007, hundreds of birds have been
recorded, including pileated woodpeckers, but not the Ivory-billed
woodpecker.
Debate
In June
2005, ornithologists at Yale University
, the University of Kansas
, and Florida Gulf Coast University
submitted a scientific article skeptical of the
initial reports of rediscovery.
We were very skeptical of the first published reports,
and... data were not sufficient to support this startling
conclusion.
In August 2005, despite the arguments for the existence of at least
one Ivory-billed Woodpecker, questions about the evidence remained.
For example, there were no findings of dead Ivory-bills nor were
any nests found. Cornell could not say with absolute certainty that
the sounds recorded in Arkansas were made by Ivory-bills.
Some skeptics, including
Richard Prum,
believe the video could have been of a
Pileated Woodpecker.
An article by Dina Cappiello in the Houston Chronicle published
December 18, 2005 presented Richard Prum's position as follows:
Prum, intrigued by some of the recordings taken in
Arkansas' Big Woods, said the evidence thus far is
refutable.
On page 13 of the American Birding Association publication "Winging
It" (November/December 2005), it was announced:
The ABA Checklist Committee has not changed the status
of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from Code 6 (EXTINCT) to another
level that would reflect a small surviving population.
The Committee is waiting for unequivocal proof that the
species still exists.
In a commentary published in
The
Auk in January 2006, ornithologist Jerome Jackson
expressed his skepticism of the Ivory-bill evidence in no uncertain
terms:
Prum, Robbins, Brett Benz, and I remain steadfast in
our belief that the bird in the Luneau video is a normal Pileated
Woodpecker.
Others have independently come to the same conclusion,
and publication of independent analyses may be forthcoming [...]
For scientists to label sight reports and questionable photographs
as 'proof' of such an extraordinary record is delving into
'faith-based' ornithology and doing a disservice to
science."
(Jackson, 2006a),
sparking off a side debate coming close to personal accusation
(Fitzpatrick
et al., 2006b,c; Jackson, 2006b).
In March 2006, a research team headed by
David A. Sibley of Concord, MA published findings in
the journal
Science, saying that the videotape was most
likely of a Pileated Woodpecker, with mistakes having been made in
the interpretation of its posture. They conclude that it lacks
certain features of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and has others
consistent with the Pileated (Sibley
at al., 2006) The
original Cornell research team stood by their original findings in
a response article in the same issue of
Science,
stating:
Claims that the bird in the Luneau video is a normal
pileated woodpecker are based on misrepresentations of a pileated's
underwing pattern, interpretation of video artifacts as plumage
pattern, and inaccurate models of takeoff and flight
behavior.
These claims are contradicted by experimental data and
fail to explain evidence in the Luneau video of white dorsal
plumage, distinctive flight behavior, and a perched woodpecker with
white upper parts."
(Fitzpatrick et al., 2006a)
Other
workers made claims disputing the validity of the Luneau video,
including a web site discussing the evidence by Colby College
biologist Louis Bevier, who stated:
In sum, no evidence confirms the alleged rediscovery of
the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Indeed, confidence in the claim has
eroded with failure to verify its existence despite massive
searches.
A 2007 paper concluded that the Luneau video was consistent with
the Pileated Woodpecker:
New video analysis of Pileated Woodpeckers in escape
flights comparable to that of the putative Ivory-billed Woodpecker
filmed in Arkansas shows that Pileated Woodpeckers can display a
wingbeat frequency equivalent to that of the Arkansas bird during
escape flight. The critical frames from the Arkansas video that
were used to identify the bird as an Ivory-billed Woodpecker are
shown to be equally, or more, compatible with the Pileated
Woodpecker.…The identification of the bird filmed in Arkansas in
April 2004 as an Ivory-billed Woodpecker is best regarded as
unsafe. The similarities between the Arkansas bird and known
Pileated Woodpeckers suggest that it was most likely a Pileated
Woodpecker.
Doubt was also cast on some of the auditory evidence (
ARU recordings of double-raps) for
the presence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas and Florida.
One group of researchers stated:
All ARU double raps suggesting the presence of an
Ivory-billed Woodpecker should be reconsidered in light of the
phenomenon of duck wingtip collisions, especially those recorded in
the winter months, when duck flocks are common across flooded
bottomlands of the southeastern United States.
Cornell search efforts 2005-09
Cornell-organized searches in Arkansas and elsewhere from 2005 to
2008 did not produce any definitive evidence of the species. The
press release summarizing the 2005-6 search season stated:
There were teasing glimpses and tantalizing sounds, but
the 2005-2006 search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas
has concluded without the definitive visual documentation being
sought.
The search, led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with
support from Audubon Arkansas, stretched from November through
April when ivory-bill activity would be highest and a lack of
leaf-cover permitted clear views through the dense
forest.…
“The search teams were very skilled, not only technically but in
the execution of the search,” said Dr. John Fitzpatrick, director
of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Even though we didn’t get
additional definitive evidence of the ivory-bill in Arkansas, we’re
not discouraged. The vastness of the forest combined with the
highly mobile nature of the bird warrant additional searching.”In
May 2006, it was announced that a large search effort led by the
Cornell team had been suspended for the season with only a handful
of unconfirmed, fleeting sightings to report. At that point,
conservation officers allowed the public back into areas of the
Cache River National Wildlife Refuge that had been restricted upon
the initial reported sightings.The 2006-07 search season had
similar results to those of the previous year:
The Lab and its partners concluded the 2006–07 field
season in Arkansas at the end of April with no additional
definitive evidence of ivory-bills to complement the data gathered
in 2004 and 2005.
But [Ronald] Rohrbaugh and others are convinced the
research should continue, not only in Arkansas, but in other states
that are part of the bird’s historic range. “We’ll return to
Arkansas for at least another field season,” says Rohrbaugh.
“Searches there and searches conducted by other agencies throughout
the Southeast are still turning up reports of sounds that cannot be
explained away. However, there’s no way to know for sure yet if
reported double knocks and kent-like sounds were made by an
ivory-bill or something else.”
Likewise, the 2007-08 search season did not deliver conclusive
evidence of the bird:{{cite web | last = Leonard | first = Pat |
authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 27 June 2008 | url =
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/pastsearches/07_08season/07_08updatesstories/0708summary
| title = 2007-08 Ivory-billed Woodpecker Search Season Summary|
format = | work = | publisher = Cornell Lab of Ornithology |
accessdate = 23 March 2009 | dateformat = dmy}}
The search teams covered lots of ground and tried new
survey techniques…. Searchers documented more possible sightings
and possible ivory-bill double knocks heard, but the definitive
photograph, like the bird itself, remained elusive.
Cornell University did not field a search team in Arkansas during
2008-2009, but focused on [[mangrove]] habitats in southwest
Florida, with a later visit planned for South Carolina. According
to a Cornell University press release from January 2009, the
2008-09 season will be the last Cornell-sponsored search, absent
confirmation of the bird:{{cite web | last = Leonard | first = Pat
| authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 7 January 2009 | url =
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/latest/seasonstart09/document_view
| title = Searching New Habitat: Ivory-bill Search Season Begins|
format = | work = | publisher = Cornell Lab of Ornithology |
accessdate = 23 March 2009 | dateformat = dmy}}
There will be a distinctly different flavor to this
season’s search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Seven members of
the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s mobile search team will plunge
into some of the most forbidding wilderness in southwestern
Florida. …The work begins in Florida in early January and continues
through mid-March. …In mid-March the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
team will join the South Carolina search along the Congaree,
PeeDee, and Santee Rivers.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-funded Ivory-billed
Woodpecker searches will continue through the 2008-09 search
season,” says Laurie Fenwood, Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Team
Coordinator for the U.S, Fish and Wildlife Service.…If no birds are
confirmed, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will not send an
organized team into the field next year. “We remain committed to
our original goal of striving to locate breeding pairs,” says
Cornell Lab of Ornithology director John Fitzpatrick. “We will
continue to accept and investigate credible reports of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers, and to promote protection and restoration of the old
growth conditions upon which this magnificent species depended
across the entire southeastern United States.”
The 2008-09 search effort in southwest Florida found no evidence of
the bird:{{cite web | last = Lammertink | first = Martjan |
authorlink = | coauthors = Martin Piorkowksi | year = 6 April 2009
| url = http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/latest/April09Update |
title = Out of the Everglades, Onward to South Carolina| format = |
work = | publisher = Cornell Lab of Ornithology | accessdate = 8
April 2009 | dateformat = dmy}}
We have found no signs of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. No
sightings, double knocks or calls, no replies to our many
double-knock imitations. We have seen a few cavities of the
appropriate size and shape for ivory-bills, but these can be old,
or exceptionally large Pileated Woodpecker cavities, or
mammal-enlarged Pileated Woodpecker cavities.… Given the results,
it is unlikely a population of any meaningful size of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers exists in south Florida.
===2005/2006 Florida reports=== [[Image:Campephilus
principalisEFN70LA.png|right|250px]] In September 2006, new claims
that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker may not be extinct were released
by a research group consisting of members from [[Auburn
University]] in Alabama and the [[University of Windsor]] in
Ontario. Dr. [[Geoffrey E. Hill]] of Auburn University and Dr.
Daniel Mennill of the University of Windsor have revealed a
collection of evidence that the birds may still exist in the
cypress swamps of the [[Florida panhandle]]. Their evidence
includes 14 sightings of the birds and 300 recordings of sounds
that can be attributed to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but also
includes tell-tale foraging signs and appropriately sized tree nest
cavities (Hill ''et al.'', 2006). This evidence remains
inconclusive as it excludes the photographic or DNA evidence that
many experts cite as necessary before the presence of the species
can be confirmed. While Dr. Hill and Dr. Mennill are themselves
convinced of the bird's existence in Florida, they are quick to
acknowledge that they have not yet conclusively proven the species'
existence. The research team is currently undertaking a more
complete survey of the [[Choctawhatchee River]], in hopes of
obtaining photographic evidence of the bird's existence.{{cite web
| last = | first = | authorlink = Hill, G. E., D. J. Mennill, B. W.
Rolek, T. L. Hicks, and K. A. Swiston. | coauthors = | year = 2006
| url = http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/ | title = Evidence
suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis)
exist in Florida. | format = | work = | publisher = The Resilience
Alliance | accessdate = 30 November 2006 | dateformat = dmy}} In
April, 2007 the [[Florida Ornithological Society]] Records
Committee voted unanimously '''not''' to accept the 2005-06 reports
of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker on the Choctawhatchee River {{cite
web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 2007 |
url =
http://www.fosbirds.org/RecordCommittee/Board%20Report%20Spring%202007.htm
| title = FOS BOARD REPORT--Florida Ornithological Society Records
Committee, April 2007 | work = | publisher = Florida Ornithological
Society | accessdate = 18 March 2008 | dateformat = dmy}}:
RC 06-610. Ivory-billed Woodpecker, ''Campephilus
principalis.'' 21 May 2005- 26 April 2006. Choctawhatchee River,
Washington/Bay/Walton cos. A population of unknown size has been
reported by a team from Auburn University from the lower
Choctawhatchee River. There have been a few sightings but no
photographs, some interesting recordings of “kent” calls and of
double rap drums, and photographs taken of cavities and bark
scaling. These observations were made on the heels of the
much-publicized “rediscovery” of the species in Arkansas
(Fitzpatrick et al. 2005). The species had not been documented to
occur since 1944. The video documentation of the bird(s) from
Arkansas, however, has been debated by many, although the record
was accepted by the Arkansas Bird Records Committee. Our Committee
felt that given the controversy of the Arkansas evidence, the
species is best considered still extinct. Therefore only evidence
that undoubtedly showed a living bird would be considered
sufficient to accept a report.
The last specimen taken in Florida was in 1925; there
have been numerous sight reports of varying credibility since, and
one record of a feather found in a nest cavity in 1968 that was
identified as an Ivory-billed Woodpecker inner secondary by
[[Alexander Wetmore]].
VOTE: NOT ACCEPT (0-7)
The Auburn/University of Windsor team continued search efforts but
planned to cease updates on their web site in August 2009:{{cite
web | last = Hill | first = Geoff | authorlink = | coauthors = |
year = 2 August 2009 | url =
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/Updates.html
| title = Updates from Florida| work = | publisher = Auburn
University | accessdate = 7 August 2009 | dateformat = dmy}}
''(12 June 2008)'' We completed our 2008 effort to get
definitive evidence for ivorybills in the Choctawhatchee River
Basin in early May…. Team members had no sightings of ivorybills
and only two sound detections in 2008.… So where does all this
leave us? Pretty much in the same position as in June 2006. We have
a large body of evidence that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers persist
along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle, but we do
not have definitive proof that they exist. Either the excitement of
the ivorybill hunt causes competent birders to see and hear things
that do not exist and leads competent sound analysts to misidentify
hundreds of recorded sounds, or the few ivorybills in the
Choctawhatchee River Basin are among the most elusive birds on the
planet.
''(9 February 2009)'' There has been little to report,
and my students and I [Geoff Hill] have been enjoying the calm. We
continue to work to get definitive documentation of the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Choctawhatchee River Basin.… To my
knowledge, there have been no sightings of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
in the Choctawhatchee region since last spring. There were a few
double knock detections in January, but not by my paid crew, Brian
[Rolek], or me.
(2 August 2009) I haven’t posted many updates
on this site in the past 9 months because there hasn’t not been
much to report.… Since the winter of 2008, we have had few
sightings or sound detections by anyone—none by Brian or me—and
none that I would rate very highly.… In short, our experience over
the past year indicates that ivorybills have moved out of the areas
where we encountered them from 2005 to 2008.… There is no way to
know whether the birds are in different areas in the Choctawhatchee
Basin, different forests in the region, or dead.…I won’t post any
more updates on this site.
Publicity and tourism
In
economically struggling east Arkansas, the speculation of a
possible return of the Ivory-bill has served as a great source of
economic exploitation, with tourist spending up 30%, primarily in
and around the city of Brinkley, Arkansas
. A woodpecker "festival", a woodpecker
hairstyle (a sort of mohawk with red, white, and black dye), and an
"Ivory-bill Burger" have been featured locally. The lack of
confirmed proof of the bird's existence, and the extremely small
chance of actually seeing the bird even if it does exist
(especially since the exact locations of the reported sightings are
still guarded), have prevented the explosion in tourism some locals
had anticipated.
Brinkley hosted "The Call of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Celebration" in February 2006. The celebration included exhibits,
birding tours, educational presentations, a vendor market, and
more.
Interviews with residents of Brinkley, Arkansas, heard on
National Public Radio following the
reported rediscovery were shared with musician
Sufjan Stevens, who used the material to
write a song titled "The Lord God Bird" (
MP3).
Arkansas has made license plates featuring a graphic of an
Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Popular culture
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was featured in an episode of ABC's
Grey's Anatomy on November
1, 2007, entitled "Kung-Fu Fighting". The possibility of seeing the
rare bird one day inspired a passionate bird watcher to make it
through awake open-heart surgery.
In
Woody Woodpecker's cartoon
episode "Dumb Like a Fox", a museum offers 25 dollars for a
Campephilus principalis, Woody Woodpecker being a specimen
of this species himself.
Sources
References
- Bevier, Louis (2007): Ivory-billed debate
[2015]
- Farrand, John & Bull,
John, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds,
Eastern Region, National Audubon Society (1977)
- Fitzpatrick, John W.; Lammertink, Martjan;
Luneau, M. David Jr.; Gallagher, Tim
W.; Harrison, Bobby R.; Sparling, Gene M.; Rosenberg, Kenneth
V.; Rohrbaugh, Ronald W.; Swarthout, Elliott C. H.; Wrege, Peter
H.; Swarthout, Sara Barker; Dantzker, Marc S.; Charif, Russell A.;
Barksdale, Timothy R.; Remsen, J. V. Jr; Simon, Scott D. &
Zollner, Douglas (2005): Ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus
principalis) persists in continental North America.
Science
308(5727): 1460-1462. PMID 15860589 preprint PDF fulltext Supporting Online Material
- Fitzpatrick, John W.; Lammertink, Martjan;
Luneau, M. David Jr.; Gallagher, Tim
W.; Harrison, Bobby R.; Sparling, Gene M.; Rosenberg, Kenneth
V.; Rohrbaugh, Ronald W.; Swarthout, Elliott C. H.; Wrege, Peter
H.; Swarthout, Sara Barker; Dantzker, Marc S.; Charif, Russell A.;
Barksdale, Timothy R.; Remsen, J. V. Jr; Simon, Scott D. &
Zollner, Douglas (2006b): Clarifications about current research on
the status of Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus
principalis) in Arkansas. Auk 123(2): 587–593.
DOI:
10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[587:CACROT]2.0.CO;2 PDF
fulltext
- Fitzpatrick, John W.; Lammertink, Martjan;
Luneau, M. David Jr.; Rosenberg, Kenneth V.; Gallagher, Tim W. & Rohrbaugh, Ronald W.
(2006c): Response to letter by J. A. Jackson. Auk 123(4): 1189.
DOI:
10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[1189:RTLBJA]2.0.CO;2
- Gallagher, Tim W.
(2005): The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed
Woodpecker Houghton Mifflin, Boston. ISBN 0-618-45693-7
- Hoose, Phillip M. (2004): The Race to Save
the Lord God Bird. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York. ISBN
0-374-36173-8 (children's book) HTML excerpt
- Jackson, Jerome A. (2004): In Search of
the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Smithsonian Institution Press.
ISBN 1-58834-132-1
- Jackson, Jerome A. (2006a): Ivory-billed
Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis): hope, and the
interfaces of science, conservation, and politics. Auk 123: 1-15. DOI:
10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[0001:IWCPHA]2.0.CO;2 PDF
fulltext
- Jackson, Jerome A. (2006b): The public
perception of science and reported confirmation of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker in Arkansas. Auk
123(4): 1185–1189. DOI:
10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[1185:TPPOSA]2.0.CO;2
- Tanner, James T. (1942). The Ivory-Billed
Woodpecker. National Audubon Society, N.Y.
- Winkler, H.; Christie, D. A. & Nurney, D.
(1995): Woodpeckers: A Guide to the Woodpeckers of the
World. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. ISBN
0-395-72043-5
- Steinberg, Michael K. (2008). Stalking the Ghost Bird: The
Elusive Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Louisiana. Louisiana State University
Press ISBN 978-0-8071-3305-7
Footnotes
External links
- Big Woods Conservation Partnership, formed in response
to the bird's rediscovery. Retrieved 2009-JUL-2.
- Ghost
Bird - A new independent feature documentary about the search
for the Ivory-billed woodpecker.
- The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is Still Flying!
from Birding America, website of Arkansas birder Mary
Scott. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Ivory-billed Woodpecker audio recording from the Macaulay Library,
Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology- Date of recording April 9, 1935. Retrieved
2006-OCT-6.
- The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service draft recovery plan
- 'Extinct' woodpecker found alive. BBC News, version of 2005-APR-28. Retrieved
2006-OCT-6.
- Finding The 'Lord God Bird'. CBS News, October 16, 2005. Retrieved
2006-OCT-6.
- The
Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology website with video and sound files.
Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- The Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Pearl
River area, Louisiana. Louisiana State University website. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. NPR Radio
Expeditions, with streaming RealAudio
and other media. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Doubts cast on superstar woodpecker's return.
New Scientist, 17 March 2006.
Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Quicktime movie about the rediscovery of the
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker - includes footage from the Luneau
video. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Ivory-billed woodpecker photos. The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved
2006-OCT-6.
- Maps of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker's Habitat.
The Nature Conservancy.
Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- The
search for the ivory-billed woodpecker. The Nature Conservancy feature with
information on the Ivory-bill, its habitat, and the core search
team. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- A Live Chat with Phillip Hoose, author of The Race to
Save the Lord God Bird. The Nature Conservancy, Tuesday, May
10, 2005. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Ivory-Billed Woodpecker habitat range in Georgia.
University
of Georgia
Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory,
Georgia GAP Project. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.
- Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Extensive bibliography
on Woodpeckers of North America website. Retrieved
2006-OCT-6.
- Independent Researchers Confirm the Existence of
Ivory-billed Woodpecker Yale University press release, August 2, 2005. Retrieved
2006-OCT-6.
- Art of the States: Wilson's Ivory-bill Musical
work by composer Lee Hyla using
Ivory-billed woodpecker recordings
- Is it Extinct? Video showing differences between
Ivory-billed and Pileated Woodpecker specimens
- ACONE:
Autonomous Collaborative Observatory for Natural Environments
NSF Project with robotic cameras scanning the skies over the Cache
River.
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