Ivory-billed woodpecker: Difference between revisions

Ivory-billed woodpecker
	A male ivory-billed woodpecker leaving the nest as the female returns. Taken on the Singer Tract, Louisiana, April 1935, by Arthur A. Allen
Conservation status
	; Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Campephilus
Species:	C. principalis
Binomial name
	Campephilus principalis; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
	Campephilus p. principalis; †Campephilus p. bairdii
	Estimated range of the ivory-billed woodpecker by Edwin Hasbrouck; Pre-1860 (Solid Line), 1891 (Hatched Area)
Synonyms
	Picus principalis Linnaeus, 1758

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The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is one of the largest woodpeckers in the world, at roughly 20 inches (51 cm) long and 30 inches (76 cm) in wingspan. It is native to types of virgin forest ecosystems found in the southeastern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and, to a lesser extent, hunting has reduced populations so thoroughly that the species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, ^[1] and the American Birding Association lists the ivory-billed woodpecker as a class 6 species, a category it defines as "definitely or probably extinct".^[3] The last universally accepted sighting of an American ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in Louisiana in 1944. However, sporadic reports of sightings and other evidence of the birds' persistence have continued ever since. In the 21st century reported sightings and analyses of audio and visual recordings have been published in peer reviewed scientific journals as evidence the species persists in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida. Various land acquisition and habitat restoration efforts have been initiated in areas where sightings and other evidence have suggested a relatively high probability the species exists, to protect any surviving individuals.

Taxonomy

A comparison of the ivory-billed woodpecker (bottom) with the pileated woodpecker (top)

The ivory-billed woodpecker was first described as Picus maximus rostra albo "the largest white-bill woodpecker" in English naturalist Mark Catesby's 1731 publication of Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas.^[4]^[a] Noting his report, Linnaeus later described it in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name of Picus principalis.^[6] The genus Campephilus was introduced by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840 with the ivory-billed woodpecker as the type species.^[7]

Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis bairdii or Campephilus bairdii), is now believed to be extinct.
American ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis principalis or Campephilus principalis), is described here.

Ornithologists have traditionally recognized two subspecies of this bird: the American ivory-billed woodpecker, the more famous of the two, and the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker. The two look similar, despite differences in size and plumage. Some controversy exists over whether the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker is more appropriately recognized as a separate species. A recent study compared DNA samples taken from specimens of both ivory-billed birds, along with the imperial woodpecker, a larger but otherwise very similar bird. It concluded not only that the Cuban and American ivory-billed woodpeckers are genetically distinct, but also that they and the imperial form a North American clade within Campephilus that appeared in the mid-Pleistocene.^[8] The study does not attempt to define a lineage linking the three birds, though it does imply that the Cuban bird is more closely related to the imperial.^[8]

The American Ornithologists' Union Committee on Classification and Nomenclature has said it is not yet ready to list the American and Cuban birds as separate species. Lovette, a member of the committee, said that more testing is needed to support that change, but concluded, "These results will likely initiate an interesting debate on how we should classify these birds."^[9]

While recent evidence possibly suggesting that American ivory-billed woodpeckers still exist in the wild has caused excitement in the ornithology community, no similar evidence exists for the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker, believed to be extinct since the last sighting in the late 1980s.

Although they look very similar to the pileated woodpecker, they are not close relatives, as the pileated is a member of the genus Dryocopus.^{[citation needed]}

"Ivory-billed woodpecker" is the official name given to the species by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC).^[10] The ivory-billed woodpecker is sometimes referred to as the holy grail bird (because of its rarity and elusiveness) and the Lord God bird or the Good God bird (both based on the exclamations of awed onlookers).^[11] Other nicknames for the bird are the King of the Woodpeckers and Elvis in Feathers.^[12]

Description

The ivory-billed woodpecker was the largest woodpecker in the United States. The closely related and likewise probably extinct imperial woodpecker (C. imperialis) of western Mexico is, or was, the largest woodpecker in the world. The ivory-billed has a total length of 48 to 53 cm (19 to 21 in), and based on scant information, weighs about 450 to 570 g (0.99 to 1.26 lb). It has a typical 76 cm (30 in) wingspan. Standard measurements attained included a wing chord length of 23.5–26.5 cm (9.3–10.4 in), a tail length of 14–17 cm (5.5–6.7 in), a bill length of 5.8–7.3 cm (2.3–2.9 in), and a tarsus length of 4–4.6 cm (1.6–1.8 in).^[13]

The bird is sexually dimorphic, as seen in the picture to the right. It 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, and 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-billed woodpecker is black. When perched with the wings folded, birds of both sexes present a large patch of white on the lower back, roughly triangular in shape. These characteristics distinguish them from the smaller and darker-billed pileated woodpecker. The pileated woodpecker normally is brownish-black, smoky, or slaty black in color. It also has a white neck stripe, but the back is normally black. Pileated woodpecker juveniles and adults have a red crest and a white chin. Pileated woodpeckers 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-billed woodpecker has a strong and straight bill and a long, mobile, hard-tipped, barbed tongue. Among North American woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker is unique in having a bill whose tip is quite flattened laterally, shaped much like a beveled wood chisel. Overall it is a very large and distinctive woodpecker with a charismatic, very clean and smooth appearance.

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 a series. When the bird is disturbed, the pitch of the kent note rises, it is repeated more frequently, and it is often doubled. A conversational call, also recorded, is given between individuals at the nest, and has been described as kent-kent-kent. A recording of the bird, made by Arthur A. Allen, can be found here.

Habitat and diet

Ivory-bills exchanging places in the nest, April 1935

Ivory-billed woodpeckers 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 and continuous primeval hardwood forests that were suitable as habitat for the bird. At that time, the ivory-billed woodpecker ranged from eastern Texas to North Carolina, and from southern Illinois to Florida and Cuba.^[14] 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 large larvae of certain wood-boring beetles, but also eats seeds, fruit, and other insects. The bird uses its enormous bill to hammer, wedge, and peel the bark off dead trees to find the insects. These birds need about 25 km² (9.7 sq mi) per pair to find enough food to feed their young and themselves. Hence, they occur at low densities even in healthy populations. Detailed information can be found in the book The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.

The last areas to have the bird, including the Singer Tract, were described to be incredible and primeval landscapes of old-growth swamp and forest, remnants of the eastern wilderness. They often had other disappearing species with similar habitat needs, such as the red wolf and eastern cougar.

Breeding biology

The ivory-billed woodpecker is thought to mate for life. Pairs are also known to travel together. These paired birds mate every year between January and May. Both parents work together to excavate a nest in a dead or partially dead tree about 8–15 metres (26–49 ft) from the ground before they have their young. Nest openings are typically oval to rectangular in shape, and measure about 12–14 cm tall by 10 cm wide (4.7 in–5.5 in × 3.9 in)

Usually two to five eggs are laid and incubated for 3 to 5 weeks. Parents incubate the eggs cooperatively, with the male incubating from about 4:30 pm to 6:30 am, while the female foraged, and vice versa from 6:30 am to 4:30 pm. They feed the chicks for months. Young learn to fly about 7 to 8 weeks after hatching. The parents continue feeding them for another two months. The family eventually splits up in late fall or early winter.^[15]

Ornithologists speculate that they may live as long as 30 years.^[16]

Status

Heavy logging activity exacerbated by hunting by collectors devastated the population of ivory-billed woodpeckers in the late 19th century. It was generally considered extremely rare, and some ornithologists believed it extinct by the 1920s. In 1924, Arthur Augustus Allen found a nesting pair in Florida, which local taxidermists shot for specimens.^[17] In 1932, a Louisiana state representative, Mason Spencer of Tallulah killed an ivory-billed woodpecker along the Tensas River and took the specimen to his state wildlife office in Baton Rouge.^[18] As a result, Arthur Allen, fellow Cornell Ornithology professor Peter Paul Kellogg, PhD student James Tanner, and avian artist George Miksch Sutton organized an expedition to that part of Louisiana as part of a larger expedition to record images and sounds of endangered birds across the United States.^[17] The team located a population of woodpeckers in Madison Parish in northeastern Louisiana, in a section of the old-growth forest called the Singer Tract, owned by the Singer Sewing Company, where logging rights were held by the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company. The team made the only universally accepted audio and motion picture recordings of the ivory-billed woodpecker.^[19] The National Audubon Society attempted to buy the logging rights to the tract so the habitat and birds could be preserved, but the company rejected their offer. Tanner spent 1937-1939 studying the ivory billed woodpeckers on the Singer tract and travelling across the southern United States searching for other populations as part of his thesis work. At that time, he estimated there were 22-24 birds remaining, of which 6-8 were on the Singer tract. The last universally accepted sighting of an ivory billed woodpecker in the United States was made on the Singer tract by Audubon Society artist Don Eckelberry in April 1944,^[17] when logging of the tract was nearly complete.^[20]

The ivory-billed woodpecker was listed as an endangered species on March 11th, 1967 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The ivory-billed woodpecker has been assessed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.^[1] It is categorized as probably or actually extinct by the American Birding Association.^[21]

Evidence of persistence past 1944

Since 1944 there have been regular reports of ivory-billed woodpeckers being seen or heard across the southeastern United States, particularly in Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina.^[22] In many instances, sightings were clear instances of mis-identification of pileated wookpeckers or red-headed woodpeckers. Similarly, in many cases, reports of hearing the kent call of the ivory-billed woodpecker were mis-identifications of a similar call sometimes made by blue jays.^[23] It may also be possible to mistake wing collisions in flying duck flocks for the characteristic double knock.^[24] However, a significant number of reports were accompanied by physical evidence or made by experienced ornithologists and could not be easily dismissed.^[23]

In 1950, the Audubon Society established a wildlife sanctuary along the Chipola River after a group led by University of Florida graduate student Whitney Eastman reported a pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers with a roost hole.^[25] The sanctuary was terminated in 1952 when the woodpeckers could no longer be located.^[26]

In 1967, Ornithologist John Dennis, sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, reported sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers along the Neches River in Texas. Dennis had previously rediscovered the Cuban species in 1948.^[27] Dennis produced audio recording of possible kent calls, which were found to be a good match to ivory-billed woodpecker calls, but possibly also compatible with blue jays.^[28] In total, at least 20 people reported sightings of one or more ivory-billed woodpeckers in the area in the late 1960s, ^[29] and two photographs ostensibly showing an ivory-billed woodpecker in a roost were produced by Neil Wright^[27], copies of which were given to Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.^[23] These sightings formed part of the basis for the creation of the Big Thicket National Preserve.^[30]^[31]

H. N. Agey and G. M. Heinzman reported observing one or two ivory-billed woodpeckers in Highlands County, Florida on eleven occasions from 1967 to 1969. A tree the birds had been observed roosting in was damaged during a storm, and they were able to obtain a feather from the roost, which was identified as an inner secondary feather of an ivory-billed woodpecker by A. Wetmore. The feather is stored at the Florida Museum of Natural History.^[32] The feather was described as fresh, not worn, but as the feather could not be definitely dated, it has not been universally accepted as proof ivory-billed woodpeckers persisted to this date.^[23]

Louisiana State University museum director George Lowery presented two photos at the 1971 annual meeting of the American Ornithologists Union which show what appeared to be a male ivory-billed woodpecker. The photos were taken by outdoorsman Fielding Lewis in the Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana, with a Instamatic camera.^[33] Although the photos had the correct field-markings for an ivory-billed woodpecker, their quality was not sufficient for other ornithologists to be confident they did not depict a mounted specimen, and they were greeted with general skepticism.^[34]

In 1999, Louisiana State University forestry student David Kulivan reported an extended viewing of a pair of birds at close range in the Pearl River region of southeast Louisiana, which some experts found very compelling.^[35] In 2002, a large collaboration was organized, and sent an expedition into the area by researchers from Louisiana State University and Cornell University, funded by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service.^[36] Six researchers spent 30 days searching the area, finding indications of large woodpeckers, but none that could be clearly ascribed to ivory-billed woodpeckers rather than pileated woodpeckers.^[37] In 2004, after local resident Gene Spalding reporting seeing an ivory-billed woodpecker in Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, the collaboration shifted its focus there when members Tim Gallagher and Bobby Harrison investigated and also observed a bird they identified as an ivory-billed woodpecker. A larger expedition was organized, which from 2004-2005 reported seven convincing sightings of an ivory-billed woodpecker (as well as eight other possible sightings). The team also heard and recorded possible double-knock and kent calls, and produced a video with four seconds of footage of a large woodpecker, which they identified as an ivory-billed woodpecker on the basis of its size, field marks, and flight pattern.^[38] The sighting was accepted by the Bird Records Committee of the Arkansas Audubon Society.^[39] The Nature Conservancy and Cornell University bought 120,000 acres (490 km²) of land to enlarge the wildlife refuge. During a second search season in 2005-2006, no unambiguous encounters with ivory-billed woodpeckers occurred in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. The collaboration subsequently expanded its search, conducting searches in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois, and Mississippi, but found no clear indications of ivory-billed woodpeckers in any of those searches,^[23] at which point they concluded their efforts.^[40] A team headed by David A. Sibley, published a response, arguing the bird in the video could have a morphology consistent with a pileated woodpecker,^[41] and a second team argued the flight characteristics may not be diagnostic.^[42] The original team published a rebuttal,^[43] and the identity of the bird in the video remains disputed.

Scientists from Auburn University and the University of Windsor published a paper describing a search for ivory-billed woodpeckers along the Choctawhatchee River from 2005-2006, during which they recorded 14 sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers, 41 occasions on which double-knocks or kent calls were heard, 244 occasions on which double-knocks or kent calls were recorded, and analysis of those recordings, and of tree cavities and bark stripping by woodpeckers they found consistent with the behavior of ivory-billed woodpeckers, but inconsistent with the behavior of pileated woodpeckers.^[44] In 2008, the sightings and sound detections largely dried up, and the team ended their searches in 2009.^[45] The sightings were not accepted by the Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee, which said it would only accept a report of ivory-billed woodpeckers that contained:^[46]

Relationship with Humans

In economically struggling eastern Arkansas, the speculation of a possible return of the ivory-billed woodpecker 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" (made with 100% beef) 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 rise in tourism that 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.^{[citation needed]}

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".^[47]^[48]

The Alex Karpovsky film Red Flag features Karpovsky as a filmmaker touring his documentary about the ivory-billed woodpecker, which is also a film he actually made titled Woodpecker.

Arkansas has made license plates featuring a graphic of an ivory-billed woodpecker.^[49]

Notes

^ The universally accepted starting point of modern taxonomy for animals is set at 1758, with the publishing of Linnaeus' 10th edition of Systema Naturae, although scientists had been coining names in the previous century.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c BirdLife International 2018 (2018). "Campephilus principalis (amended version of 2016 assessment)". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018. IUCN: e.T22681425A125486020. Retrieved 10 July 2019.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis". Retrieved 24 October 2018.
^ "Annual Report of the ABA Checklist Committee: 2007 – Flight Path" (PDF). Retrieved 13 November 2012.
^ Catesby, Mark (1731). Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas (1st ed.). London: Royal Society House. p. 16.
^ Polaszek, Andrew (2010). Systema Naturae 250 - The Linnaean Ark. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 34. ISBN 9781420095029.
^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Vol. I (in Latin) (10th revised ed.). Holmiae: (Laurentii Salvii). p. 113.
^ Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 54.
^ ^a ^b Robert C. Fleischer; Jeremy J. Kirchman; John P. Dumbacher; Louis Bevier; Carla Dove; Nancy C. Rotzel; Scott V. Edwards; Martjan Lammertink; Kathleen J. Miglia; William S. Moore (2006). "Mid-Pleistocene divergence of Cuban and North American ivory-billed woodpeckers". Biology Letters. 2 (#3): 466–469. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0490. PMC 1686174. PMID 17148432.
^ Leonard, Pat; Chu, Miyoko (Autumn 2006). "DNA Fragments Yield Ivory-bill's Deep History". BirdScope. 20 (#4). Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.
^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Woodpeckers". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
^ Hoose, Phillip M. (2004). The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-0-374-36173-0. They gave it names like 'Lord God bird' and 'Good God bird'.
^ Steinberg, Michael K. (2008). Stalking the Ghost Bird: The Elusive Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Louisiana. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3305-7. Nicknamed the 'Lord God Bird', the 'Grail Bird', 'King of the Woodpeckers', and 'Elvis in Feathers', the ivory-bill – thought to be extinct since the 1940s – fascinates people from all walks of life and has done so for centuries.
^ Winkler, Hans; Christie, David A.; Nurney, David (1995). Woodpeckers: An Identification Guide to the Woodpeckers of the World. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-72043-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
^ Jackson, Jerome (2002). "Ivory-billed Woodpecker". Birds of North America Online. Retrieved 11 October 2009.
^ Allen, Arthur A.; Kellog, P. Paul (1937). "Recent Observations on the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker". Auk. 54 (#2): 164–184. doi:10.2307/4078548. JSTOR 4078548.
^ "Ecology and Behavior". The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Studying a Vanishing Bird". The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
^ "History of the Ivorybill: The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), one of the largest woodpeckers known ... has become elusive to ornithologists as well as birdwatchers". ivorybill.org. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
^ Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Records (Mss. 4171), Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (accessed 02/18/2015)
^ Weidensaul, Scott (2005): Ghost of a chance. Smithsonian Magazine. August 2005: pp. 97–102.
^ "ABA Checklist". American Birding Association. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
^ Mendenhall, Matt (2005). "Reported Ivory-bill Sightings Since 1944". Birders World Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Region 4 (2010). Recovery Plan for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus Principalis) (PDF). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southeast Region.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Jones, Clark D.; Jeff R. Troy; Lars Y. Pomara (June 2007). "Similarities between Campephilus woodpecker double raps and mechanical sounds produced by duck flocks". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 119 (#2): 259–262. doi:10.1676/07-014.1.
^ "Ivory-billed Woodpecker Searches, 1948-1971". Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
^ "1950-52 Chipola River Wildlife Sanctuary subject of research team". Blountstown, Florida: The County Record. 1 June 2017.
^ ^a ^b Collins, George Fred (1970). The Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Texas. Texas A&M University.
^ Hardy, John Williams (June 1977). "A Tape Recording of a Possible Ivory-billed Woodpecker Call". American Birds. 29 (3): 647–651. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
^ Williams, James (December 2001). "Ivory-billed Dreams, Ivory-billed Reality". Birding. pp. 514–522.
^ United States Congress (1969). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress, Volume 115, Part 30. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 40392–40393.
^ United States. Congress. Senate. Interior and Insular Affairs (1971). Hearing before the Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate Ninety-First Congress Second Session on S. 4 To Establish The Big Thicket National Park in Texas. Washington, DC.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Henry Miller Stevenson, Bruce H. Anderson (1994). The Birdlife of Florida. University Press of Florida. pp. 407–410. ISBN 0813012880.
^ Morris, Tim (9 January 2006). "the grail bird". lection. Retrieved 8 July 2006.
^ Sykes, Paul W. Jr. (2016). "A Personal Perspective on Searching for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker: A 41-Year Quest". USGS Staff -- Published Research: 1026.
^ Brett Martel (19 November 2000). "Reported Sighting of 'Extinct' Woodpecker Drives Bird-Watchers Batty". Los Angeles Times.
^ Jerome A. Jackson (1 June 2002). "Jerry Jackson assesses David Kulivan's report of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Pearl River Swamp, Louisiana". Bird Watching Daily. Retrieved 14 October 2019. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
^ Fitzpatrick, John W. (Summer 2002). "Ivory-bill Absent from Sounds of the Bayous". Birdscope. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2006.
^ Fitzpatrick, J. W.; Lammertink, M; Luneau Jr, M. D.; Gallagher, T. W.; Harrison, B. R.; Sparling, G. M.; Rosenberg, K. V.; Rohrbaugh, R. W.; Swarthout, E. C.; Wrege, P. H.; Swarthout, S. B.; Dantzker, M. S.; Charif, R. A.; Barksdale, T. R.; Remsen Jr, J. V.; Simon, S. D.; Zollner, D (2005). "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America" (PDF). Science. 308 (#5, 727): 1460–2. doi:10.1126/science.1114103. PMID 15860589.
^ Pranty, Bill (November 2011). "22nd Report of the ABA Checklist Committee" (PDF). Birding. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
^ Dalton, Rex (10 February 2010). "Still looking for that woodpecker". Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 13 February 2010.
^ Sibley, D. A. (2006). "Comment on "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America"" (PDF). Science. 311 (#5, 767): 1555a. doi:10.1126/science.1122778. PMID 16543443. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 May 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
^ Collinson, J Martin (March 2007). "Video analysis of the escape flight of Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus: does the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis persist in continental North America?". BMC Biology. 5: 8. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-5-8. PMC 1838407. PMID 17362504.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
^ Fitzpatrick, J. W.; Lammertink, M; Luneau Jr, M. D.; Gallagher, T. W.; Rosenberg, K. V. "Response to Comment on "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America". Science. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
^ Hill, Geoffrey E.; Mennill, Daniel J.; Rolek, Brian W.; Hicks, Tyler L.; Swiston, Kyle A. (2006). "Evidence Suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) Exist in Florida" (PDF). Avian Conservation and Ecology. 1 (3): 2. doi:10.5751/ace-00078-010302. Retrieved 13 October 2019. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help) Erratum
^ Hill, Geoff (2 August 2009). "Updates from Florida". Auburn University. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
^ Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee (7 March 2007). "FOS Board Report — April 2007". Florida Ornithological Society. Retrieved 27 January 2010.^{[dead link]}
^ "Brinkley, Ark., Embraces 'The Lord God Bird'". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. 6 July 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
^ "Sufjan Stevens – "The Lord God Bird" (MP3)". Npr.org. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
^ "Game & Fish Ivory Billed Woodpecker Plate". Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Retrieved 1 September 2018.

External links

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service draft recovery plan
The Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Cornell Lab of Ornithology website with video and sound files. Retrieved 2006-OCT-6.

[6] The universally accepted starting point of modern taxonomy for animals is set at 1758, with the publishing of Linnaeus' 10th edition of Systema Naturae, although scientists had been coining names in the previous century.^[5]

[IUCN-1] BirdLife International 2018 (2018). "Campephilus principalis (amended version of 2016 assessment)". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018. IUCN: e.T22681425A125486020. Retrieved 10 July 2019.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[BLI-2] "Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis". Retrieved 24 October 2018.

[3] "Annual Report of the ABA Checklist Committee: 2007 – Flight Path" (PDF). Retrieved 13 November 2012.

[4] Catesby, Mark (1731). Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas (1st ed.). London: Royal Society House. p. 16.

[5] Polaszek, Andrew (2010). Systema Naturae 250 - The Linnaean Ark. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 34. ISBN 9781420095029.

[7] Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Vol. I (in Latin) (10th revised ed.). Holmiae: (Laurentii Salvii). p. 113.

[8] Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 54.

[ancientDNA-9] Robert C. Fleischer; Jeremy J. Kirchman; John P. Dumbacher; Louis Bevier; Carla Dove; Nancy C. Rotzel; Scott V. Edwards; Martjan Lammertink; Kathleen J. Miglia; William S. Moore (2006). "Mid-Pleistocene divergence of Cuban and North American ivory-billed woodpeckers". Biology Letters. 2 (#3): 466–469. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0490. PMC 1686174. PMID 17148432.

[10] Leonard, Pat; Chu, Miyoko (Autumn 2006). "DNA Fragments Yield Ivory-bill's Deep History". BirdScope. 20 (#4). Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.

[ioclist-11] Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Woodpeckers". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 October 2019.

[12] Hoose, Phillip M. (2004). The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-0-374-36173-0. They gave it names like 'Lord God bird' and 'Good God bird'.

[13] Steinberg, Michael K. (2008). Stalking the Ghost Bird: The Elusive Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Louisiana. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3305-7. Nicknamed the 'Lord God Bird', the 'Grail Bird', 'King of the Woodpeckers', and 'Elvis in Feathers', the ivory-bill – thought to be extinct since the 1940s – fascinates people from all walks of life and has done so for centuries.

[14] Winkler, Hans; Christie, David A.; Nurney, David (1995). Woodpeckers: An Identification Guide to the Woodpeckers of the World. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-72043-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)

[15] Jackson, Jerome (2002). "Ivory-billed Woodpecker". Birds of North America Online. Retrieved 11 October 2009.

[16] Allen, Arthur A.; Kellog, P. Paul (1937). "Recent Observations on the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker". Auk. 54 (#2): 164–184. doi:10.2307/4078548. JSTOR 4078548.

[17] "Ecology and Behavior". The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

[CORNELLVANISHING-18] "Studying a Vanishing Bird". The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

[19] "History of the Ivorybill: The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), one of the largest woodpeckers known ... has become elusive to ornithologists as well as birdwatchers". ivorybill.org. Retrieved 24 July 2013.

[20] Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Records (Mss. 4171), Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (accessed 02/18/2015)

[21] Weidensaul, Scott (2005): Ghost of a chance. Smithsonian Magazine. August 2005: pp. 97–102.

[22] "ABA Checklist". American Birding Association. Retrieved 8 October 2019.

[Mendenhall-23] Mendenhall, Matt (2005). "Reported Ivory-bill Sightings Since 1944". Birders World Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2006.

[recovery_plan-24] U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Region 4 (2010). Recovery Plan for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus Principalis) (PDF). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southeast Region.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[jones2007-25] Jones, Clark D.; Jeff R. Troy; Lars Y. Pomara (June 2007). "Similarities between Campephilus woodpecker double raps and mechanical sounds produced by duck flocks". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 119 (#2): 259–262. doi:10.1676/07-014.1.

[26] "Ivory-billed Woodpecker Searches, 1948-1971". Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 16 October 2019.

[27] "1950-52 Chipola River Wildlife Sanctuary subject of research team". Blountstown, Florida: The County Record. 1 June 2017.

[Collins1970-28] Collins, George Fred (1970). The Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Texas. Texas A&M University.

[29] Hardy, John Williams (June 1977). "A Tape Recording of a Possible Ivory-billed Woodpecker Call". American Birds. 29 (3): 647–651. Retrieved 9 October 2019.

[30] Williams, James (December 2001). "Ivory-billed Dreams, Ivory-billed Reality". Birding. pp. 514–522.

[31] United States Congress (1969). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress, Volume 115, Part 30. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 40392–40393.

[32] United States. Congress. Senate. Interior and Insular Affairs (1971). Hearing before the Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate Ninety-First Congress Second Session on S. 4 To Establish The Big Thicket National Park in Texas. Washington, DC.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[StevensonAnderson1994-33] Henry Miller Stevenson, Bruce H. Anderson (1994). The Birdlife of Florida. University Press of Florida. pp. 407–410. ISBN 0813012880.

[lection-34] Morris, Tim (9 January 2006). "the grail bird". lection. Retrieved 8 July 2006.

[sykes2016-35] Sykes, Paul W. Jr. (2016). "A Personal Perspective on Searching for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker: A 41-Year Quest". USGS Staff -- Published Research: 1026.

[36] Brett Martel (19 November 2000). "Reported Sighting of 'Extinct' Woodpecker Drives Bird-Watchers Batty". Los Angeles Times.

[37] Jerome A. Jackson (1 June 2002). "Jerry Jackson assesses David Kulivan's report of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Pearl River Swamp, Louisiana". Bird Watching Daily. Retrieved 14 October 2019. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)

[Birdscope-38] Fitzpatrick, John W. (Summer 2002). "Ivory-bill Absent from Sounds of the Bayous". Birdscope. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2006.

[Fitzpatrick-39] Fitzpatrick, J. W.; Lammertink, M; Luneau Jr, M. D.; Gallagher, T. W.; Harrison, B. R.; Sparling, G. M.; Rosenberg, K. V.; Rohrbaugh, R. W.; Swarthout, E. C.; Wrege, P. H.; Swarthout, S. B.; Dantzker, M. S.; Charif, R. A.; Barksdale, T. R.; Remsen Jr, J. V.; Simon, S. D.; Zollner, D (2005). "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America" (PDF). Science. 308 (#5, 727): 1460–2. doi:10.1126/science.1114103. PMID 15860589.

[40] Pranty, Bill (November 2011). "22nd Report of the ABA Checklist Committee" (PDF). Birding. Retrieved 17 October 2019.

[41] Dalton, Rex (10 February 2010). "Still looking for that woodpecker". Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 13 February 2010.

[sibleyresp-42] Sibley, D. A. (2006). "Comment on "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America"" (PDF). Science. 311 (#5, 767): 1555a. doi:10.1126/science.1122778. PMID 16543443. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 May 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.

[43] Collinson, J Martin (March 2007). "Video analysis of the escape flight of Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus: does the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis persist in continental North America?". BMC Biology. 5: 8. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-5-8. PMC 1838407. PMID 17362504.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)

[44] Fitzpatrick, J. W.; Lammertink, M; Luneau Jr, M. D.; Gallagher, T. W.; Rosenberg, K. V. "Response to Comment on "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America". Science. Retrieved 18 October 2019.

[ace-eco-art2-45] Hill, Geoffrey E.; Mennill, Daniel J.; Rolek, Brian W.; Hicks, Tyler L.; Swiston, Kyle A. (2006). "Evidence Suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) Exist in Florida" (PDF). Avian Conservation and Ecology. 1 (3): 2. doi:10.5751/ace-00078-010302. Retrieved 13 October 2019. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help) Erratum

[46] Hill, Geoff (2 August 2009). "Updates from Florida". Auburn University. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2009.

[47] Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee (7 March 2007). "FOS Board Report — April 2007". Florida Ornithological Society. Retrieved 27 January 2010.^{[dead link]}

[48] "Brinkley, Ark., Embraces 'The Lord God Bird'". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. 6 July 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2006.

[49] "Sufjan Stevens – "The Lord God Bird" (MP3)". Npr.org. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2012.

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@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 Scientists from [[Auburn University]] and the [[University of Windsor]] published a paper describing a search for ivory-billed woodpeckers along the [[Choctawhatchee River]] from 2005-2006, during which they recorded 14 sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers, 41 occasions on which double-knocks or ''kent'' calls were heard, 244 occasions on which double-knocks or ''kent'' calls were recorded, and analysis of those recordings, and of tree cavities and bark stripping by woodpeckers they found consistent with the behavior of ivory-billed woodpeckers, but inconsistent with the behavior of pileated woodpeckers.<ref name="ace-eco-art2">{{cite journal|author=Hill, Geoffrey E.|author2=Mennill, Daniel J.|author3=Rolek, Brian W.|author4=Hicks, Tyler L.|author5=Swiston, Kyle A.|last-author-amp=yes |year=2006|title= Evidence Suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (''Campephilus principalis'') Exist in Florida|journal=Avian Conservation and Ecology|volume=1|issue=3|page=2 <!-- ACE-ECO uses article instead of page numbers -->|doi=10.5751/ace-00078-010302|url=http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/ACE-ECO-2006-78.pdf|access-date=2019-10-13}} [http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/errata.html Erratum]</ref>  In 2008, the sightings and sound detections largely dried up, and the team ended their searches in 2009.<ref>{{cite web | last = Hill | first = Geoff | date = 2 August 2009 | url = http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/Updates.html | title = Updates from Florida| website =  | publisher = Auburn University | accessdate =7 August 2009 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605193722/http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/Updates.html |archivedate=5 June 2011}}</ref>  The sightings were not accepted by the [[Florida Ornithological Society]] Records Committee, which said it would only accept a report of ivory-billed woodpeckers that contained:<ref>{{cite web|author=Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee |date=7 March 2007 |url=http://fosbirds.org/RecordsCommittee/Reports/Board%20Report%20Spring%202007.htm |title=FOS Board Report — April 2007 |publisher=Florida Ornithological Society |accessdate=27 January 2010 }}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}<!-- not archived on Wayback Machine --></ref>
-[[File:English Bayou in the Pearl River swamp in Louisiana.jpg|thumb|English Bayou in the Pearl River swamp, where Michael Collins reported nine sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers in 2006 and 2008.]]
-[[File:Upward swooping landings by large woodpeckers.jpg|thumb|Upward swooping landings by large woodpeckers. The pileated woodpecker typically swoops upward a short distance before landing. In the 2007 video, there are upward swooping landings with long vertical ascents that are consistent with an account by Don Eckleberry in 1944 of a landing with "one magnificent upward swoop."]]
-A scientist from the Naval Research Laboratory reported ten sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers between 2006 and 2008, obtained video evidence in the Pearl River in 2006 and 2008 and the [[Choctawhatchee River]] in 2007, explored the use of drones for searching and surveying habitats, and analyzed the elusiveness and double knocks of this species.<ref name="Collins2011">{{cite journal|doi=10.1121/1.3544370|pmid=21428525|title=Putative audio recordings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis)|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|volume=129|issue=#3|pages=1626–1630|year=2011|last1=Collins|first1=Michael D.|url=http://fishcrow.com/JASAv129p1626.pdf}} [http://ftp.aip.org/epaps/journ_acoust_soc/E-JASMAN-129-024103/readme.html supplemental material]</ref><ref name="collins2017">{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.heliyon.2017.e00230|pmid=28194452|pmc=5282651|title=Video evidence and other information relevant to the conservation of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis)|journal=Heliyon|volume=3|issue=#1|pages=e00230|year=2017|last1=Collins|first1=Michael D.}}</ref><ref name = "collins2017b>{{cite journal | url = https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13035-6 | title = Periodic and transient motions of large woodpeckers | last = Collins | first = Michael D. | journal = [[Scientific Reports]] | year = 2017}}</ref><ref name="CollinsDrones">{{cite journal | url = https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/2/1/11/htm | title = Using a drone to search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) | journal = [[Drones]] | volume = 2 | issue = 1 | year = 2018 | last = Collins | first = Michael D.}}</ref><ref name = "collins2019">{{cite journal | url = https://amstat.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2330443X.2019.1637802 | title = Statistics, probability, and a failed conservation policy | last = Collins | first = Michael D. | year = 2019 | journal = [[Statistics and Public Policy]] | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | accessdate = 15 October 2019}}</ref> Avian artist [[Julie Zickefoose]] contributed to the analysis of the 2006 video, which is based on behaviors, neck/crest/bill morphology, and a size comparison with a pileated woodpecker specimen mounted on the perch tree.<ref name="Collins2011" /><ref name="collins2017" /><ref name="collins2019" />  Ornithologist Bret Tobalske contributed to the analysis of the 2008 video, which is based on woodpecker flight mechanics, wing motion, flap rate, flight speed, wing shape, and field marks.<ref name="Collins2011" /><ref name="collins2017" /><ref name="collins2019" />  The 2007 video shows a series of events involving swooping flights with long vertical ascents, deep and rapid flaps at takeoff, a double knock that is visible and audible, and other behaviors and characteristics that are consistent with the ivory-billed woodpecker but apparently no other species of the region.<ref name="collins2017" /><ref name="collins2019" /> These reports (like all others since 1944) have been received with skepticism,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.audubon.org/news/possible-ivory-billed-woodpecker-footage-breathes-life-extinction-debate|title=Possible Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Footage Breathes Life Into Extinction Debate|author=Michelle Donahue|date=25 January 2017|publisher=Audubon Society}}</ref> but nobody has proposed a plausible counterargument for any of the events in the videos. The ivory-billed woodpecker's history of elusiveness (multiple rediscoveries, no clear photo ever obtained without knowing the location of a nest, and many reports but no clear photo during the past several decades) is consistent with an analysis based on behavior and habitat that suggests the expected waiting time for obtaining a clear photo is several orders of magnitude greater than it would be for a more typical species of comparable rarity.<ref name="collins2017" /><ref name="collins2019" /> An analysis based on the concept of a harmonic oscillator relates the double knocks of the ivory-billed woodpecker (and double/multiple knocks of other Campephilus woodpeckers) to the drumming that is typical of most woodpeckers.<ref name="collins2017b" />
 ==Relationship with Humans==