The Ivory-Bill Woodpecker found... Alive!

I suspect most of you have already hear or read about this somewhere; but a group of Cornell scientists has spotted -- on 7 seperate occasions -- an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in the woods of Arkansaw.



They've written an article about it (PDF format).

I grew up in a birdwatching (birding) family; and even as a little kid, the Ivory Bill was a bird that had a lot of appeal to me. Big, beautiful bird -- like a cross between Woody Woodpecker and a pteradactyl.

But my dad (a fisheries biologist) told me that the bird was probably extinct; no one had seen one in decades. And when we'd be out in the woods (woods which, BTW, were thousands of miles away from the Ivory Bill's habitat), I'd wish that we'd be the ones to get a chance to see one.

And now, this. Video of an ivory bill, and recorded sound. What a thrill! Kudos to the team, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the locals who live near the forest for keeping this quiet while (a) they made sure they could confirm their observations, and (B) looking into how to keep people from disturbing the distressingly few birds in there.

Maybe we can't save the ivory bill; and if we can't, it'll be a shame. But I've seen other birds come back from being endangered in my lifetime (the bald eagle in particular).

so if we're careful, maybe we can leave a few more of these birds behind, for future generations.