The Bird … an Ivory-billed Woodpecker ¶ with VIDEO link

The Search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Timeline of the Ivory-Bill Search

The Ivory Bill Woodpecker is considered by many to be America’s rarest birds as some believe it still lives a reclusive life in southern Swamps of Louisiana.

The last confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States was more than 60 years ago. Since the search began in March of 2004 there have been more than a dozen sightings of the ivory-bill by experts in the Big Woods of Arkansas’ Mississippi Delta.  

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.

    Heritage Audubon Society

SEE THE VIDEO — Jump to the most recent events in the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker!

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Long Feared Extinct,
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.