[Right Wing Professor]

However, I can tell you that for miles around the property values will plunge because the ivory billed woodpecker MIGHT come on your property therefore you won't be allowed to so much as clear underbrush, much less build a house.

True. They could use this to shut down much of the South. It's a big bird and needs a big range. If you though spotted owls were bad, this sucker's way more photogenic and romantic.

[js1138]

Why is this bird so fragile. We live in a developed area and have piliateds out the wazoo. What's the diff?

[heartwood]

I don't know if they so much need a big range, as enough dead trees with the bark loose enough to knock off. Some ornithologists suggested back in the thirties that you could girdle trees and keep them standing to increase the food supply.

My late father swore he saw one in the fifties in NC, and he knew what a pileated looks like.

I really hope this is true - the ivory bill is in my top five list of extinct species I wish could come back - along with Steller's seacow.