Evidence of "Extinct" Woodpecker in Florida, Experts Say

Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News

September 26, 2006

The elusive ivory-billed woodpecker may be living in Florida, according
to new evidence.

The birds, long believed extinct, may survive along the Choctawhatchee River in the state's panhandle, scientists report today in the online scientific journal Avian Conservation and Ecology (map of Florida).

Geoff Hill, a biologist at Alabama's Auburn University, and a team of researchers say they found the Florida birds on a kayak trip in May 2005.

The research trip came just after the news broke that the ivory-bill had been reported in the Big Woods region of eastern Arkansas.

The Arkansas sighting was later challenged by ornithologists, who argued that it was impossible to rule out the more common pileated woodpecker.

Because the last confirmed sighting of an ivory-bill was in Louisiana in 1944, the Arkansas "discovery" was hailed at the time as the ornithological equivalent of finding Elvis alive, and the event catapulted the birds to celebrity status.

Lucky Find

Hill's first encounter with the bird was quite unexpected.

"We were inspired by the reports from Arkansas," he said, "but we didn't want to follow the crowd, so we decided to search some areas closer to Auburn."

Initially his goal was to follow up on a report phoned in ten years earlier by someone who thought he'd seen one of the birds on Alabama's Pea River.

A day kayaking that river revealed disappointingly little in the way of potential ivory-bill habitat, so his team decided to shift to the Choctawhatchee.

That river, he says, is little known among ornithologists.

"I didn't even know how to pronounce the name," he said.

With no maps and no real idea of where they were going, the group launched their kayaks.

Within an hour, Hill says, one of his research assistants, Brian Rolek, spotted an ivory-bill in flight.

At the same time, Hill says, he heard a "double knock"—the unusual pecking sound that distinguishes the ivory-bill from other types of woodpeckers.

"It was just to be a weekend outing looking for potential habitat," Hill later said in a statement.

"We really never dreamed we'd actually find an ivory-bill."

The following weekend the team returned to the river, where another of Hill's assistants, Tyler Hicks, reported that he got a clear view of a female woodpecker.

Hicks didn't have the opportunity to snap a photo, but he says he saw the distinctive plumage of the ivory-bill, which has a white trailing edge on the upper wing, white stripes down its back, and an all-black crest.

Hill and his colleagues are confident of their discovery but aware that they have yet to prove it.

"The only evidence that would constitute irrefutable proof is a clear photograph or video," Hill said in his statement, "and such an image has to date eluded us."

He says his team has had 14 sightings and identified 300 sounds that match descriptions of ivory-billed woodpeckers.

They have also found nest cavities that are too large for other local birds and uncovered places where ivory-bills appear to have been pecking on trees.

No Slam Dunk

Even though Hill's reports fall "well short of proof," the finding is "intriguing," said David Sibley, author and illustrator of the Sibley Guide to Birds.

Sibley was one of the scientists who questioned the Arkansas videotapes from last year.

"More searching is essential, and hopefully that will lead to the proof that everyone wants to see," Sibley said by email.

The find is extremely exciting, adds Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society.

"Nothing is confirmed, but there is a lot of good evidence," he said.

"They seem to have found some very good habitat and have been very diligent in trying to document it."

The region where Hill's team is working, Butcher said, contains groves of old, bottomland hardwood trees, which are "very appropriate habitat" for ivory-billed woodpeckers.

Deforestation played a major role in dooming the ivory-bill. Populations of the bird plummeted in the first half of the 20th century due to wholesale logging of their habitat.

But much of that habitat has now regrown, Butcher says.

"We're hoping that there were enough patches left at that time … and that a few individuals were able to hold on and maintain the population," he said.

"There's every reason to believe that a population could expand if there are still breeding pairs around today."

Amateur birders are at least as excited.

"When I first heard about the ivory-billed woodpecker sightings in Arkansas, I was skeptical," said David Hatfield, a birder from Portland, Oregon.

"But after I read [Tim Gallagher's] book, The Grail Bird, about the Arkansas research, I switched to thinking that the bird still does exist.

"The new findings strengthen my belief that the ivory-bill has survived," Hatfield said. "That such a large and colorful bird appears to have survived for over 50 years without proof of existence is good news for the ivory-bill, a positive note on the state of our wildernesses, and a fantastic story."

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