The ivory-billed woodpecker was a large crow-sized bird that inhabited the southeastern US and Cuba. It was heavily hunted in the 1800s-early 1900s, nearly driving it extinct. In the 1920s, loss of bottomland forest habitat led most to believe it was extinct. Sightings in 1935 and 1944 gave hope for its survival, but it was last definitively seen in 1944. In 2005, Cornell claimed rediscovery based on sightings and audio recordings, but skepticism remains due to its resemblance to the pileated woodpecker. Its current status is uncertain but some evidence suggests it may still exist in very small numbers.

1. The Quest for the Most Elusive Bird of All Time
By Peter Suich

2. Ivory-billed Woodpecker
 The ivory-billed
 woodpecker, named for
 the color of its beak,
 is a large crow-sized
 bird of the U.S. and
 Cuba.
Image taken by Arthur Allen in Singer Tract in 1935

3.  The ivory-billed woodpecker was first described in
1712, by the Englishman Mark Catesby.
 From the early 1800s to the early 1900s, the bird was killed
by Europeans for its bill and crest, and Native Americans
began hunting the woodpecker much earlier.
 As a result, the ivory-bill was in danger of extinction by the
early 20th Century.

4. Status
 The scant data we have on the ivory-bill suggests that
it has never been very common.
 Historically, the ivory-bill has required extensive
bottomland forests for survival.
 By the 1920s, much of the ivory-billed woodpecker’s
habitat was gone, and most ornithologists considered
the bird extinct.

5.  In 1935, a group from Cornell university rediscovered
the ivory-billed woodpecker in a hardwood forest in
Tallulah, Louisiana.
 The last definite sighting, though, came a mere nine
years later.
 In 1971, George Lowry, Jr., a respected ornithologist,
came forward with what he believed to be two genuine
photos of the ivory-bill; to his surprise, he was greeted
with scorn and skepticism.

6.  In 2005, Cornell university claimed they had
rediscovered the ivory-billed woodpecker for the
second time.
 The university had a research group in Arkansas that
documented seven reliable sightings, audio recordings,
and an extremely blurry video of an “ivory-billed
woodpecker.”
 Despite the evidence, skeptics continued to debate the
issue.

7. Seeing Double
 One of the problems associated with determining the
ivory-billed woodpecker’s status is its remarkable
resemblance to its close relative, the pileated
woodpecker.
Image by Andrew Brownsword

8. Conclusion
 The fact that there is no definitive proof for the ivory-
billed woodpecker’s survival is suspicious.
 Some evidence, however, like the short video taken by
a member of Cornell’s research team in 2004, does
seem rather suggestive.
 It is likely the ivory-bill still exists in very small
numbers.