# The Official Ivory-bill Is Alive Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524 "2005-04-28T12:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scarface\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Scarface\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarface_Z)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/21 "2005-04-29T00:58:50Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > easily among the most significant events in US ornithology of the past 40 years. Forgive me for not knowing my history, but could you tell me what happened 40 years ago? I just want be able to say to my friends that this is the biggest thing since “blank.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/22 "2005-04-29T01:06:30Z")
> [@Scarface Z](#): > > Forgive me for not knowing my history, but could you tell me what happened 40 years ago? I was simply trying to avoid excessive hyperbole. There will be many who say that this is the biggest thing in a lot more than 40 years. Another big, if less dramatic, event has been the comeback of peregrine falcons and bald eagles in the lower 48 (they were never scarce in Alaska). Cornell and the Peregine Fund get a lot of credit here. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/23 "2005-04-29T01:24:22Z")
Here is a link to the video that was used to definitively identify the bird: [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol0/issue2005/images/data/1114103/DC1/1114103S1.mov](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol0/issue2005/images/data/1114103/DC1/1114103S1.mov) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/24 "2005-04-29T01:30:03Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > It’s good news. It also throws cold water on the idea that destroying an animal’s only known habitat will cause its extinction. How many species will just shrug and say, “Well, Maude, here come the loggers. :eek: I guess I’ll just die?” Most critters are pretty resourceful when it comes to survival. > … Heh. No, no cold water there. The fact that it survived means there were other habitats that weren’t destroyed or disturbed. This doesn’t mean we can go in there and rip up that habitat and it will be okay because the birds survived before! The species was _presumed_ extinct, that’s because it lives in such a dense forest habitat that it’s not like they’re easy to find. Heck it took over 50 years to get a confirmed sighting. In order to evolve or adapt a species needs time. The Dusky Seaside Sparrow didn’t get much time to relocate or be resourceful when man decided to rip out it’s natural (and only) home on Merritt Island in order to build the space center. The Dusky is extinct. It’s not the only species to share that fate. We were wrong about the Ivory-Billed most likely being extinct but that doesn’t mean everything’s all hunky dorry for them now. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/25 "2005-04-29T02:04:35Z")
Why are some species so dependent upon their habitat? A red headed woodpecker is happy in a dead tree close to the house, and I’ve seen a pileated hammering away at a stump in a yard. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/26 "2005-04-29T02:21:02Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > Here is a link to the video that was used to definitively identify the bird: > > [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol0/issue2005/images/data/1114103/DC1/1114103S1.mov](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol0/issue2005/images/data/1114103/DC1/1114103S1.mov) Dude. I hope there was more to it than that. While I admit to not being a world-class expert on birding, I’m pretty OK…and I couldn’t have definitively ID’ed squat from that vid. That said, I stood up and literally cheered when I heard the news. Course, now the pressure’s really on those Louisiana birders who have been claiming for years that there are still some down in the Atchafalaya bottomland. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/27 "2005-04-29T04:51:51Z")
This struck me, from the [CBC](http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/04/28/woodpecker-050428.html) story: > [@](#): > > The woodpecker was once nicknamed the “Lord God” bird because that’s what people apparently exclaimed when they saw its 90-centimetre wingspan and striking black-and-white plumage. When I was a little one I used to be quite the little armchair birder. I always pondered over the picture of the ivorybill and wonder if “presumed extinct” meant they might someday find another one. And they have. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/28 "2005-04-29T08:59:54Z")
I was about to start a thread on this and here there’s been one out for almost a day!. Another story link, with some cool pictures! > **[Ivory-billed Woodpecker Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ivory-billed_Woodpecker)** > > The largest of the woodpeckers north of Mexico and the third largest in the world, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was a bird of old-growth forests in the southeastern U.S. and Cuba. Destruction of its forest habitat caused severe population declines in... ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/29 "2005-04-29T11:44:14Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > … or maybe Skunk Ape. I often get confused; it has been years since I bothered with any sasquatchery. No, the skunk ape is down here in SW Florida. He has learned to blend in by playing golf. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/30 "2005-04-29T16:36:24Z")
> [@Smitty Werbenyeggermanjenson](#): > > Are you saying that we should just destroy habitat with reckless abandon because some animals will find something else? Did all those other thousands of species just go extinct on their own? 😕 I am saying nothing of the sort. You’ve made a stunning leap of the imagination. I asserted that most critters are resourceful enough to change their zip code. You made a hyperjump to “destroy habitat with reckless abandon.” The fact that the IBW has evaded humans since 1939 probably says more about its reclusive habits than anything else. We are clearly not very good at finding this bird. Only one or two have been careless enough to show themselves in over sixty years. Does this mean there’s only one left? Of course not. The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is obviously not an ex-woodpecker. It really was just pinin’ for the fjords. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/31 "2005-04-29T16:55:19Z")
> [@](#): > > The woodpecker was once nicknamed the “Lord God” bird because that’s what people apparently exclaimed when they saw its 90-centimetre wingspan and striking black-and-white plumage. Taking into account the noise this thing must make when it takes off suddenly, it’s not hard to imagine a frontiersman, on the alert for mountain lions, bears, and maybe the occasional Creek war party, might have had some serious cussing to do when this bird got flushed unexpectedly. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/32 "2005-04-29T17:26:36Z")
Sidenote to any Arkansans with [EIFS stucco systems](http://boston.homeconnections.com/article.show.37.Stucco-Siding.8864.html): There’s a possibility your house is going to be holier than St Patrick’s Cathedral. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/33 "2005-04-29T17:51:33Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > Sidenote to any Arkansans with [EIFS stucco systems](http://boston.homeconnections.com/article.show.37.Stucco-Siding.8864.html): There’s a possibility your house is going to be holier than St Patrick’s Cathedral. Say what? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/34 "2005-04-29T18:22:58Z")
Now, if we could only find a living DODO bird…happiness complete? How’s that Dodo-cloning effort going? Anybody have any info? And that mammoth cloning…how’s that going? ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/35 "2005-04-29T19:52:19Z")
Former South Carolina state legislator Alex Sanders now has renewed hope for the “Lord God bird” to be found in his state. Of course, he claims to have heard an ivory-billed woodpecker [back in 1971,](http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/11515370.htm) and to have saved 10.000 acres of pristine swapland as a result. John B. Dunning Jr, who’s known as Barny around these parts, is one of the authors of the [“Sibley on Birds”](http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/observer/living/home/gardening/4201163.htm) column. He’s also a member of the church I attend, and I’m hoping to get his reaction to this news when I attend Sunday’s service. **Long Time First Time** ’s mother is also quite the birder, and may be planning a trip to the Big Woods area of Arkansas even as I type… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/36 "2005-04-29T20:02:57Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > planning a trip to the Big Woods area of Arkansas even as I type… Vogel is German for bird if I remember my Wagner. Hey, we don’t need a bunch of folks coming by and annoying the bird. I’m staying home and leaving him alone. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/37 "2005-04-29T21:34:54Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Here is a GQ: Are there any other instances of recent extinct species that turned out to be non extinct? (ceolocanths don’t count since they weren’t thought to be recenetly extinct) **Xema** already mentioned the takahe. [Here is a graphic](http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,195988,00.jpg) which identifies five other species of birds that turned out to have been the subjects of greatly exaggerated rumors of demise. Several articles I’ve read have mentioned that the ivory-billed woodpecker was one of six species of North American birds thought to have gone extinct since 1880. The others were the [passenger pigeon,](http://www.wbu.com/chipperwoods/photos/passpigeon.htm) [heath hen,](http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep16a.htm) [Carolina parakeet,](http://birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/Conservation/CAPA.html) [Bachman’s warbler,](http://www.lmrcc.org/Ecosystempage1_html/E-T%20Species/Bachman's%20Warbler.htm) and [dusky seaside sparrow](http://www.earthwitness.com/Orange%20Band.htm) (the last link includes a brief sound bite). ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/38 "2005-04-29T23:24:04Z")
Well, once the **Bachman’s Warbler** was revealed to be in truth the other well-known Maine native, the **King Fisher** , the hubbub settled down and everyone went back to tapping maple trees and shucking for clams. What? 😃 Cartooniverse, who is admittedly hard-pressed to show love for any [Boids](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=256339) out there… ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/39 "2005-04-29T23:55:34Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > No, the skunk ape is down here in SW Florida. He has learned to blend in by playing golf. An old drinking buddy of mine claimed to have seen one around the (then) outskirts of Cape Coral. Note that I said he was a drinking buddy—if he was awake, he was drinking. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524/40 "2005-04-30T01:04:07Z")
Yay is right! I still get teary at the thought. Go to the Cornell.edu homepage. They have lots of links describing the efforts to conclusivey identify the ivory billed woodpecker. Of course it could be the last of the species. But that would almost too cruel. We had a big effort near where I live in 2002 to locate the bird based on a reputable audible identification (Pearl River Wildlife Management Area in Louisiana). But nothing was seen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-ivory-bill-is-alive-thread/301524.md?page=3)