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.”
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
This struck me, from the CBC story:
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. 
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!
No, the skunk ape is down here in SW Florida. He has learned to blend in by playing golf.
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. 
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.
Sidenote to any Arkansans with EIFS stucco systems: There’s a possibility your house is going to be holier than St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Say what?
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?
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, 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” 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…
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.
Xema already mentioned the takahe. Here is a graphic 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, heath hen, Carolina parakeet, Bachman’s warbler, and dusky seaside sparrow (the last link includes a brief sound bite).
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 out there…
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.
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.