Extinct Woodpecker Found in Arkansas, Experts Say

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" Extinct " Woodpecker Found in Arkansas, Experts Say

James Owen

for National Geographic News

April 28, 2005

 

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For 50 years the ivory-billed woodpecker has been

widely considered extinct. But the Elvis of the

bird-watching world is alive in eastern Arkansas, bird

experts announced today. (Watch a video on the

discovery from the Nature Conservancy [requires

Windows Media Player].)

 

Ornithologists reported the bird's rediscovery in a

remote area of wetland forest.

 

The discovery " is huge, just huge, " said Frank Gill,

senior ornithologist at the New York City-based

National Audubon Society. " It is kind of like finding

Elvis. "

 

" Through the 20th century it's been every birder's

fantasy to catch a glimpse of this bird, however

remote the possibility, " added John W. Fitzpatrick,

director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca,

New York. " This really is the holy grail. "

 

Among the world's largest woodpeckers, the ivory-bill

is one of six North American bird species suspected or

known to have gone extinct since 1880. The last

conclusive sighting of the woodpecker was in Louisiana

in 1944.

 

The black-and- white bird's disappearance followed

extensive logging in the southeastern U.S., which

decimated the woodpecker's habitat of mature virgin

forests.

 

Since then this charismatic species has become the

Elvis of the bird world, with whisperings over the

years that it might still be alive in some secret

hideaway. Experts remained highly skeptical. That is,

until now.

 

Eight independent sightings have been reported since

early 2004 in the Big Woods region of eastern

Arkansas, a 550,000-acre (220,000- hectare) corridor

of swamps and floodplain forests. The reports all came

within five miles (three kilometers) of one another.

 

Key features of the sighted birds, including size and

markings, all point to the long-lost woodpecker,

according to Fitzpatrick.

 

Fitzpatrick headed a team that assessed the woodpecker

sightings. Their findings will be published in the

journal Science.

 

First Sighting

 

The first report came in February 2004, when a kayaker

spotted what's described as " an unusually large,

red-crested woodpecker flying towards him and landing

near the base of a tree 20 meters [about 22 yards]

away. "

 

" He noticed enough of the markings to suspect it was

an ivory-billed woodpecker, " Fitzpatrick said.

 

At least seven further visual encounters occurred over

the next year. Crucially, one sighting was captured on

video. " It's a pretty crumby video, yet remarkable and

historic, " Fitzpatrick added. " It had all the

necessary ingredients for a definitive

identification. "

 

Though the images are fleeting and blurred, extensive

analysis of the video by Fitzpatrick and his team

revealed the telltale features of an ivory-bill:

 

• The bird's size matched the species's estimated

19.5-inch (50-centimeter) length, from beak to tail

tip. The length of the tail was particularly

revealing.

 

• The bird's wing patterns, both at rest and in

flight, had the black-and-white markings

characteristic of an ivory-billed woodpecker.

 

• The bird's back had a conspicuous area of white

plumage.

 

Fitzpatrick says these key markers clearly distinguish

the bird from the smaller but similar- looking

pileated woodpecker. Previous unconfirmed reports of

ivory- billed woodpeckers in the southern U.S. were

considered highly suspect by experts, because pileated

woodpeckers are widespread in the region.

 

So far the presence of only a single ivory-bill male

can be confirmed. " We cannot rule out the possibility

that all of our fleeting encounters involved the same

bird, " Fitzpatrick said.

 

However, he believes other ivery-bills are almost

certainly out there. He says the difficulty in

detecting them may be due to the bird's extremely low

population density. The last known population of

ivory-bills, in northeastern Louisiana, had a density

of one pair per 6 square miles (16 square kilometers)

of forest.

 

" This discovery raises the possibility that there are

other places where this bird persisted through ... the

20th century, " Fitzpatrick added.

 

Once Widespread

 

Until the 1870s the ivory-bill was widespread, though

uncommon, in lowland primary forests of the

southeastern U.S. (See a 1938 picture of an ivory-bill

on a man's head.) The bird strips the bark off dying

trees with its powerful beak to get to insect grubs

beneath.

 

The bird's disappearance coincided with extensive

logging throughout the region, which continued up to

the 1940s.

 

Hunting by professional collectors accelerated the

extinction of remaining populations until the bird was

given up as extinct. The last documented ivory-bill

was seen over logged forestland in 1944.

 

A subspecies of the woodpecker may have survived in

Cuba. Experts reported brief sightings of at least two

individuals in 1986 and 1987. However, subsequent

efforts to confirm the existence of this population

failed.

 

Even if few breeding pairs survive in the Big Woods of

Arkansas, the study team says that prospects for

population growth look good. Additions to the publicly

owned wildlife refuge lands and habitat- restoration

efforts are reestablishing the mature hardwood forests

in the area.

 

Currently about a hundred thousand acres (40,470

hectares) of the Big Woods are protected and

conserved, according to Scott Simon, director of the

Nature Conservancy in Arkansas. There is a plan to

conserve and restore an additional 200,000 acres

(80,940 hectares) of critical habitat over the next

ten years, Simon added.

 

Fitzpatrick, the Cornell University ornithologist,

said, " The bottomland [or floodplain] forests are

growing back, so there are places with 4- and

5-foot-diameter [1.2- and 1.5-meter-diameter] trees

again, including those that are beginning to die as

they get to a mature stature. That's the kind of

forest that ivory-bills need.

 

" The conditions are only going to get better, " he

added, " so it's possible that the worst for this bird

is past, and with proper management these forests

could support growing populations again. "

 

Fitzpatrick sees the ivory-bill as a powerful symbol

of the forests of the Deep South. " The lure of the

wild and the lure of the beauty of birds and the lure

of the mysterious-and-possibly-gone is enveloped in

the idea of this bird. "