Ivory-billed Woodpecker Update

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Find some information here: http://www.fishcrow.com/pearl29mar08.html

and here: http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NJBD.html#1262758864

[Ilija Dukovski]

Not conclusive, but very interesting.
TFS

[John Chardine]

Here's the Cornell web page on the Ivory-bill.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/

[Chris Sloan]

This is an epic and controversial topic, and I would hate to see it infect this forum. Mr. Collins has on several occasions "cried wolf" relative to his visual evidence and been proven wrong, including very recently. I can't say, any more than anyone else, that Ivory-bills are extinct, or that Collins hasn't seen one. But I for one have yet to see anything even approaching conclusive or even very compelling evidence.

[Paul Lagasi]

There's always hope...I have a friend who spends 2 weeks each year in swamps looking...Thanks Axel interesting read...

[mike@fishcrow.com]

Mr. Collins has on several occasions "cried wolf" relative to his visual evidence and been proven wrong, including very recently.
I would like to encourage anyone with such proof to submit a comments letter to the journal where two of these data sets have been published. The article may be accessed here...

http://fishcrow.com/

It seems that bird photographers ought to have some appreciation for why it's so difficult to obtain a clear photo of this bird. One of the first things that became apparent to me in my own limited experience as a photographer is that getting a photo is much harder than seeing a bird. In the case of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, one is lucky to have one sighting on average for every several months in the field. Imagine carrying your sensitive equipment around in waist deep water or knee deep mud or while negotiating a kayak through a bayou with lots of submerged obstacles and a strong current. Think about how hard it would be to do so and then get a photo when you finally have an encounter that lasts for a few seconds as the bird flees to cover.