Long thought extinct, ivory-billed woodpecker rediscovered in Big Woods of Arkansas

Eurekalert ^ | 28-Apr-2005

[antonia]

Here in Connecticut we had long bee afraid that our native Pileated Woodpeckers had disappeared also. But I can happily report that they have returned with vigor. So vigorous in fact that every spring the males have developed an annoying habit of pecking energetically any metal smoke stack that they can reach, like the one on my house for the oil burner, which the builder had failed to to cover. The stack if covered with dents from the mating rap of Woody.

[Physicist]

Ornithology ping.

[Servant of the 9]

I saw several during the mid 70s in East Texas, long after they were declarted Extinct.
The same naturalists who thought the Aligator 'endangered' made the declaration.

SO9

[tumblindice]

A sapling springs up in the clearing between two enemies, a beech forest and a birch forest. Since I'm making this up as I go along, these talking trees argued vociferously about the parentage: birch or beech?
One day an ivory-billed woodpecker alighted on the little sapling and began pecking. Standing ent-like on tip-roots they asked as one:
"Oh woodpecker (since wp's are experts in all things wood) what is the youngster--a birch or a beech?"
He thought about the question, wiped his beak and replied,
"Gee, I dunno about that, but I'd have to say it's the best piece of ash I've ever had my pecker in." And flew away.

[Budge]

Thought you might be interested - ping.

[gorush]

I have watched the pileated fly on to a tree and do the rat-a-tat-tat-tat thing, then fly down to the bottom of the tree and work its way up with single pecks as it picks off the insects that were aroused by it's initial sustained pecking.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest."

Uh, contrary to the same sex marriage crowd, at least one female ivory-bill also still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"Maybe some passenger pigeons will turn up in there as well"

If on my property, my two row 12 won't give the passenger pigeons a free pass.

[Waterleak]

Wonder what they taste like?

[brushcop]

ROTFLOL!! I can hardly move, my ribs hurt, stop, stop!!

[wolficatZ]

I've seen pileateds many times in SC, always cool to watch

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[sweetliberty]

Interested? I reported a possible sighting of one. In fact, there have been several reports of sightings in the White River area, and "Good Lord" is a pretty accurate description of my reaction the first itme I saw it. This thing was the size of a good sized chicken. It could have just been a Pileated Woodpecker. I don't have any binoculars, so I never actually got a good look at the beak. One day it was in a tree out in the front yard for a long time. On 2 other occasions, I saw it on the ground across the narrow dirt road in front of the house. It stayed for a long time, hammering away at an old stump. I haven't seen it in several weeks.

[Finalapproach29er]

"The pussycat swallow tail"

-Remember the Gilligans Island with the bird watcher searching for this thought-to-be-extinct breed?

LOL

[TheLion]

Must have been a noisy guy. The size of a chicken?....wow!

[Inyo-Mono]

I doubt that it's real. Probably a man in a feather suit.

[BluH2o]

Pileated and the ivory billed woodpecker are similar in appearance ... the ivory billed is much more dramatic in color. Next to each other it would be easy to differentiate the species ... however, to the untrained eye the pileated can easily be mistaken for the ivory billed. Thus several responses to the initial post in this thread that state they have observed the ivory billed woodpecker.

[sweetliberty]

Yep, he was noisy. Didn't have much patience with squirrels either. If they got too close, he'd flap his wings like a goose or swan does, and run them off. Funny-looking thing. I liked having him around, but I worried with him hanging out so close to the road, in full view of some of the village idiots and juvenile delinquents. There's a lot of woods around here, so I'm assuming he's still about somewhere.

[sweetliberty]

I don't know. I had never seen either until this spring. I know that a group had been on a trip here looking for them because there were several reports of sightings here this spring, right around the time this bird was visiting. None of the sightings were confirmed at that time. Doesn't mean they didn't happen. There was an article in the local paper about it. I am not surprised that one has turned up in Arkansas.

[TheLion]

[docbnj]

This is great news.
We should save the area. There is no oil there, and a lot of swamp. We have all the wood we need from other regions.

I AM for drilling in ANWAR; there is oil there, for one thing, and oil-drilling in places like that causes very little disturbance.

There is another reason for conservation here. Large areas of Arkansas should arbitraily be set aside by decree as payback for what Clinton did in Utah and Arizona in his last days in office. In fact, maybe his haunts in Arkansas could be set aside for the Ivory-bill.