“The bird captured on this video can be
nothing other than an ivory-billed woodpecker.”
John W. Fitzpatrick
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
(Campephilus principalis)
“Despite numerous unconfirmed sightings and much searching, including an extensive search in the bottomlands of Louisiana in 2002, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is thought to be extinct. Once inhabiting the bottomland hardwoods and montane pine forests of southeastern US and Cuba, this large black and white woodpecker disappeared as its habitat was increasingly cleared for agriculture and lumber.”
Audubon Society Watchlist
Thought to be extinct, the last confirmed sighting was 60 years ago in the Big Woods.
VIDEO link to follow » »
Feb. 11, 2004 While kayaking through the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Arkansas, observes an ivory-billed woodpecker. Soon thereafter, Sparling places a trip report in an online newsletter for the Arkansas Canoe Club and later sends a report to Mary Scott, who owns the rights for birdingamerica.com, which includes a Web page on the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Feb. 27, 2004 On the second day of their outing, as Sparling paddles ahead, a large black-and-white bird flies in front of Gallagher and Harrison, in what they both describe as a “close-up, unmistakable sighting” of an ivory-billed woodpecker. The two watch the bird move from tree to tree before it flies out of sight. This sighting was the first time since 1944 that two experienced observers had together positively identified an ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States.
SEE THE VIDEO — Jump to the most recent events in the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker!
Audubon Harmony
ENVOYER À UN AMI! / TELL A FRIEND!
a Magnificent Bird Still Lives
The search and the evidence
“Since the first sighting,
this has consumed us.
We have dedicated our
time and our dreams to
protecting and conserving
this area. These woods are
my church… There is no
bird like this in the world.”
John W. Fitzpatrick
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Photo David Allen – 1935.
Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird–the Ivory-billed Woodpecker–has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest.
Published in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (April 28, 2005), the findings include multiple sightings of the elusive woodpecker and frame-by-frame analyses of brief video footage. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists.
VIDEO Releases and Photo Gallery – Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Quicktime required to view.
The Big Woods Conservation Partnership is led by The Nature Conservancy and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and includes the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, Arkansas State University, Louisiana State University, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Birdman Productions, LLC, Civic Enterprises, LLC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
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UPDATE
Although I checked using Search Tool at dKos for “woodpecker”, there are earlier diaries posted – great to check these as well!
I enjoyed doing the search for web pages on this bird, as well as other flora and fauna! The additional INFO and links provided by this diary and in the comments, of their own merit, are worthwhile to read and enjoy!
- Return of the ivory-billed woodpecker
by Scott in NAZ
Wed Apr 27th, 2005 at 22:43:50 EST - Best News All Day, Week, Month
by Devilstower
Thu Apr 28th, 2005 at 17:53:10 EST - ivory billed woodpecker back from the dead
by virginia4kerry
Fri Apr 29th, 2005 at 14:28:51 EST
[Thanks to comment by R Lucian]
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
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I couldn’t resist to find the INFO on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
I had hoped and waited for someone to publish a diary – …
Patience wore out, sorry.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Absolutely wonderful diary, Oui! Thank you!
I heard a tap, tap, tapping on my roof last year. And there it was. A woodpecker working hard on the metal drain pipe. I’m not surprised it didn’t return 🙂 But I wish it had.
hang a suet strip …
Great joy indeed. Thanks for the links.
Is it because the news about human beings is always so derned bad that this simple sign of hope for non-humanoids makes me overjoyed? I hope it’s not a hoax, that it’s an indication of the return from the brink, and that, if true, we humans will behave reverentially, emulating a “culture of life” toward the ivory-billed one.
Here in So. Fla. we have both red-headeds and sapsuckers. The former will rat-a-tat against anything; sometimes I think they prefer metal just for the sheer joy of the sound they can produce from banging away at it. Years ago, we spent a summer listening to one who must have been the reincarnation of Gene Krupa as it drilled our metal farm gate daily.
Two years ago a pair of red-headeds brought up 3 chicks in the dead stump of a palm tree just outside our kitchen window. What a treat to watch the courtship, nesting, and nurturing. They’re excellent parents. This year a mystery bird is using the same tree to nest, but a different entrance.
You did an excellent job in producing this diary. Thank you.
Joy to the world if the ivory-billed can make a come-back!
… the beautiful species of birds are of grand design.
I love to see the swarms of parrots migrating to Central America or the pink flamingos in Kenya.
In western Europe due to climate change, nature is adjusting to early springtime. On national radio, every Saturday morning, callers report first sightings of fauna and flora. The conservationists have charted these findings for decades, and have an excellent view of the changes in nature.
Species are migrating north from the warmer southern zones. In the Netherlands, although a tiny country measured by sq. miles, there are important European breeding grounds preserved through National Parks.
In Sea, tides and sand dunes you will find some links, here I will add other regions —
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
is how I tongue-in-cheekily referred to living here in a post to another diary. Where are you located — the Netherlands, France? I’d love listening to the radio show you mention.
Have you seen storks nesting in chimneys? I remember reading about this years ago when a child.
You mention likeing to see swarms of parrots. These birds have adapted nicely to my part of the world, seeking out the tall power pylons and grand trees with large canopies to congregate. Their raucous clatter can grate, though. But they make me laugh — something so comical about their round heads — and it’s not easy being green, you know.
Lots of people out in the country (where I live in rural Dade County) keep peafowl as “watch birds.” Another EXTREMELY noisy territorial creature. In fact, they’re regarded as a nuisance! Still, seeing them, makes me almost feel like I’ve been transported to India.
I could tell you so many bird stories because living on the edge of the ‘Glades, I visit there often in the winter specifically for the incredible bird-watching.
Thanks for the thoughtful links, I’ll enjoy them.
.

Stork - Ooievaar
Recent post on Oui from The Hague.
A BEAUTY – PHOTO GALLERY
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Gotta take good news where you can get it. And this is indeed good news.
The most fun thing, however (for me), is hearing and seeing the joy of those who know about birds and love them, at hearing this news. The internets have been all a twitter 😉 and the excitement is spreading.
Thanks for the video and links.
Thanks, a lovely diary…
Such good news. Every time I dig out a burdock root, or pull burrs out of manes and tails, I long for a sighting of a Carolina Parakeet, though no hope for that. I knew that they were effected by loss of habitat, but did not know that they were actively killed as pests. So now we have all those great chemicals to deal with some of the pest plants that they used to control.
Viva la Ivory Bill!
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Majestic , only when Natural Habitats are preserved, will man survive, or else earth can just as well be inhabited by robots.
Carolina Parakeet ... extinct by the 1920s.
Did you see my recent diaries — your contribution would be greatly appreciated.
by Oui Tue Apr 26th, 2005
NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN
by Oui Sun Apr 24th, 2005
AFGHANISTAN
and SAUDI ARABIA TODAY!
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
I was confused by your post, and checked my bio…I don’t know how it got that way, but I am not from Afganistan. Just an aging hippie from what used to be the Good Old USA, now ‘Murica.
Must go and change it.
This recalls a poem by a Californian who wrote that
he did not want to live in a world without the California Condor.
Live long and prosper!
Add a little support if you will – thank you.
CROSS-POSTED at Daily KOS
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
My favorite part of this story is the feelings and throughts of the man who made the discovery. Snips below are from an AP story by Melissa Nelson on April 29, for which I have no link.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Gene Sparling was kayaking when he spotted a large black-and-white bird. It looked like an ivory-billed woodpecker, last spotted in North America 60 years ago. His eyes must be playing tricks, he thought. Maybe it was a common pileated woodpecker.
“As a young birder, I used to dream of finding a lost colony of ivory-billed woodpeckers. It was just too miraculous to imagine,” Sparling said Thursday after a news conference in Washington where he joined federal officials in announcing his sighting.
Sparling spotted the ivory-billed woodpecker on Feb. 11, 2004, along the Cache River in eastern Arkansas, but wasn’t sure how to let others know about his find. He recognized the bird from his readings as an amateur bird watcher and bird photographer.
“I was very familiar with the legend of the ivory-billed,” said Sparling, who lives in Hot Springs.
<>
“My first thought was ‘My God. It’s the largest pileated woodpecker I’ve seen in my life,'” said Sparling, 49. Ivory-billed woodpeckers are a little larger than an average crow, with a wing span of about 19 inches. [And this for a bird who’s sometimes called “Lord God” ;)]
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Sparling said he was overwhelmed to be the person responsible for the discovery.
“I get all choked up thinking about it,” he said. “I view it as a marvelous miraculous gift not just for me but for all of mankind.”
…
I get all choked up, too — with hope for the planet.
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LINK – Timeline and your story
Appreciate your comment, and YES very exciting!
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Wonderful that this story hasn’t gone away! There’s a thoughtful op-ed piece in the NYT today, “The Woodpecker in All of Us.”
Among its gifts to us, the ivory bill can help us see ourselves as we really are, torn between our own desire to be free – to shoot and develop and cut down and expand – and the desire to live among free things that can survive only if we are less free.
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Thank you so much – just by reading article, it fills your body and mind with joy!
In other words it was a lot like us as we sometimes idealized ourselves. Huckleberry Finn lights out for new territory because the Widow Douglas wants to adopt and “sivilize” him.
The paradox is that the thing that seemed to link us to the wild world, our ferocious independence and unrestrained freedom, was the very impulse that endangered the wild places nourishing our national soul.
Linnaean nomenclature
Referred to in article is an historic person in nomenclature, Linnaeus and Hortus Cliffortianus.
The George Clifford Herbarium
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
For me, that is the greatest gift of this story, and everyone seems to feel it. Would the whole world could stand in solidarity for just a moment and share the joy (as so many have here). That could really “change everything!”