Ivory-billed Woodpecker – status review

In August 2007 the US Fish and Wildlife Service published the Draft Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Plan and invited public comments (the deadline was 22 Oct 2007). I’m posting a slightly edited version of my recently-submitted comments here. Although I’m critical of many aspects of the claimed rediscovery, and some may reject my views outright, I think raising these issues is in the best interests of conservation and birding, and I hope these comments can be constructive in an ongoing dialog. I think this is a very important issue with repercussions far beyond the central question of whether or not the species still exists.

I have been skeptical of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker reports since about two weeks after the announcement in April 2005. This view has only become stronger over time and is based on my thorough study of the published evidence, drawing on my 35 years of experience as a birdwatcher and student of bird identification, and on my experience reviewing countless similar rare bird reports.

I find this Draft Recovery Plan fundamentally flawed, as it presumes that there is an urgent need for action based on “convincing evidence of the species’ existence” when in fact no independent review finds that evidence convincing. The 2005 claim of “irrefutable proof” was incorrect; and was based on ambiguous evidence misinterpreted through hope and desire (commonly called wishful thinking). The case for the bird’s continued existence rests on a few seconds of extremely blurry video (shown to be consistent with Pileated Woodpecker), a handful of fleeting glimpses by observers steeped in expectations, faint audio recordings that more or less resemble Ivory-billed sounds (among other things), and a belief that all of these possibly suggestive bits add up to a compelling body of evidence (1). None of the evidence stands up to scrutiny; there is no proof. Most importantly, hundreds of thousands of person-hours of intensive search efforts since 2005 – which could have confirmed the sight reports – have not produced any confirmation at all.

Based on such weak and ambiguous evidence, the proposal to spend up to $27.7 million of a very limited budget on efforts to find and recover the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is unsupportable. Hundreds of other species with well-documented needs would be better-served by those resources.

Opinion vs. Science

An important point to understand is that the scientific debate does not directly address the question of presence or absence, only whether the bird’s presence has been confirmed. It has not. From the lack of confirmation one can infer absence, but absence cannot be proven. The burden of proof is on those who claim to have found the bird.

Many people apparently hold a positive interpretation of the evidence because of a personal belief in one or more of the sight reports, or a feeling that the combined body of evidence is convincing and that at least one of the many reports must be correct. But the body of evidence is only as strong as the single strongest piece – ten cups of weak coffee do not make a pot of strong coffee. Without evidence that can be reviewed and verified objectively and independently (the scientific standard) the debate is just so many personal opinions.

The only potentially verifiable evidence to date is the brief video recording from Arkansas, but independent reviews have refuted the claim that this shows an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and even the most generous impartial reviewers now consider the video inconclusive. With every day, month, and year of searching that fails to produce any other verifiable evidence, the bird’s presence becomes less likely.

All the skepticism of Ivory-billed Woodpecker reports could be reversed by a clear photograph tomorrow, in the same way that scientific skepticism over ESP could be reversed by one reproducible experiment. The steady decline in confidence about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is largely because an intensive research effort over the last three years has failed to produce any proof. In fact what discoveries have emerged from those three years of research (on sounds, flap rates, etc.) have only weakened the original case.

Thomas Gilovich (1991, writing about ESP research) suggests that we can gain perspective by reframing the question we ask. There is a tendency to ask simply: “What evidence supports the claimed rediscovery?” This naturally causes us to emphasize only the supportive elements of the evidence. Instead we can ask: “If Ivory-billeds survived, and an intensive research effort was designed to document their presence, what would we expect to discover in three years of field work?” This question directs us to consider the negative data – the absence of confirmation – along with the positive points. As of October 2007 there are a few reported brief sightings but no photograph (not even a prolonged view). There are tantalizing faint snippets of audio recordings but not a single recording of a clear series of Ivory-billed sounds. There are suspicious excavations and bill-markings on trees, but automated cameras have repeatedly revealed only common woodpecker species at these sites. I’m sure everyone expected more, and is disappointed by the few fragmentary bits of ambiguous data that have actually emerged from all of this effort.

And the formal search efforts of the last three years are dwarfed by the combined observations of millions of naturalists and birders across the southeast over many decades. For over sixty years birders have been fascinated by the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. They have searched promising habitat and followed up any plausible report with genuine excitement and hope, and with a total absence of definitive results. The modern style of birding (chasing rare birds) relies on the fact that a bird – once found – can be found again. Birders avidly check out all kinds of rumors, share directions to the locations of rare birds, and develop bird-finding skills to the point where even the most elusive species can be found and refound (a single Yellow Rail in a marsh in Massachusetts, for example). If the Ivory-billed Woodpecker still existed, the odds that it could consistently elude this army of skilled searchers is vanishingly small. There are still plenty of discoveries waiting to be made, but the implication that birders have been unmotivated and unobservant, and that a population of giant woodpeckers could remain undetected across several states, is simply not plausible (2).

Sightings as evidence

About 30 sightings have been reported since 2004. Many people now point to these as the most convincing evidence, and misrepresent the skepticism over sight records. All sightings to date have been extremely brief glimpses of birds, most were flying away, and most were viewed by a lone observer without the aid of binoculars. All sightings emphasize a single field mark – the white trailing edge of the wing. Some mention vague and subjective (and inconsistent) impressions of size and shape. Other distinctive field marks (such as the large pale bill) have not been seen. Several of the observers actually admit that they are not certain what they saw.

The psychology of perception is very well-studied (1) and shows that all kinds of observer effects can operate subconsciously to alter perception and cause misinterpretation. This is particularly true when the thing being observed is ambiguous (such as a very brief and incomplete view of a bird flying away). What we perceive under those circumstances is easily influenced by expectations, peer pressure, hope, and many other factors.

As most birders know from personal experience, the excitement and anticipation of searching for any reported rare bird often generates spontaneous “false positive” sightings of the sought-after species. Our perception can be very different from reality, and the expression “I know what I saw” is never strictly true. The heightened excitement of the search could easily cause some observers to misinterpret the white wing pattern on a bird glimpsed flying away.

This is why experienced birders repeatedly emphasize the importance of seeing more than one field mark to double-check an identification, and of seeing a bird long enough to confirm and reconfirm all of the observed features. That is still no guarantee of accurate perception, but even that minimum threshold is not met by any of the reported Ivory-billed Woodpecker sightings.

The skeptical position is not in any way a rejection of the value of sight records in birding. Skeptics include the vast majority of North America‘s most experienced birders, who all rely on sight records but understand how easy it is to make a mistake. Questioning these sight records does not question the honesty or integrity of the observers, it simply acknowledges the fact that perception can be flawed, and that brief views are easily misinterpreted. All observers are fallible, and errors in bird identification are common. The bottom line is that there is simply no way of knowing what was seen.

Proponents often argue that when skeptics discount the eyewitness reports they are setting unreasonably high standards for the evidence. This is not true, and ignores the fundamental weakness of the evidence to date. The opinions of many skeptics would change based on a single sighting of a bird watched for a substantial period of time (even one minute would do), seen through binoculars, with multiple field marks studied and reconfirmed. Experience with other rare birds, especially resident species, suggests that any valid sighting should very quickly lead to more sightings. A pattern of sightings by independent observers, of birds well-seen and studied (not just flying away), would be convincing to most birders even without photos, at least for a while. But even that confidence would fade if the sightings did not eventually lead to verifiable evidence such as clear photos or video.

This level of evidence – redundant sightings and photos – is not difficult to reach with any other North American bird. Yet the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, supposedly resident in a defined area of wooded habitat and reportedly seen by a few observers, still cannot be found and confirmed by thousands of searchers. The continuing absence of any confirmation has caused many birders to reexamine the reported sightings of Ivory-billeds in that context. Should we put more faith in the few reported glimpses, or the countless thousands of hours of unsuccessful follow-up search efforts?

Proponents argue that the sightings are unquestionable and that the species must have become very silent and secretive since the 1940s, and thus very difficult to find. Skeptics argue that all sightings are inherently questionable, and do not confirm the bird’s presence, let alone a change in behavior. Accepting the sightings requires one to ignore mounting negative evidence and to invoke a radical and speculative (and unlikely) hypothesis of behavioral change (3). It now seems far more likely that the few reported sightings involve simple, everyday mistakes in perception, and the reason the bird cannot be confirmed is because it is not there.

The Draft Recovery Plan

The authors of the plan admit that confirmation is lacking, but still insist that the evidence is “convincing” and strong enough to warrant a potential $27.7 million of spending in five years (2006! to 2010) which is nearly 5% of the Endangered Species Program’s total budget for those years. Some of the money (about half) would be spent on habitat management, the rest on search efforts and research, but regardless of how it’s being spent $27 million of public money is too much for an unconfirmed species and could be more beneficial to other species.

The Draft Plan (p. 3) defends this high level of attention by stating that “the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is charged to promote conservation and recovery of this species” [emphasis added]. But the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is charged to promote the conservation and recovery of all threatened and endangered species, not just this one. Making the Ivory-billed such a high priority inevitably diverts resources from other species.

If every endangered and threatened species had a multi-million dollar budget the Ivory-billed funding would not raise serious concerns. But proposing $27 million for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, when nearly 1400 other threatened and endangered species receive an average of only a few thousand dollars each, is shockingly unfair.

The Endangered Species Act specifies that:

“The Secretary, in developing and implementing recovery plans, shall, to the maximum extent practicable – (A) give priority to those endangered species or threatened species, without regard to taxonomic classification, that are most likely to benefit from such plans…”

It doesn’t say “most charismatic” or “most popular”, or even “rarest”, it says “most likely to benefit”. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker appears likely to be extinct, and therefore not likely to benefit from a recovery plan. Unless it can be found and studied, there is no evidence that it needs any management, and no way of knowing what actions might be harmful. Based on what is known today, almost any of those 1400 other species are more likely to benefit from the resources allocated to the Ivory-billed.

We need to do more for endangered species and I support major increases in funding for the Endangered Species Program. But spending such a large proportion of the current limited budget on one questionable species is wrong and appears to violate the Endangered Species Act. It diverts resources from many species with real, well-documented needs to a single unconfirmed species in an unknown location. In a finite budget there is no conceivable rationale for giving an unconfirmed species hundreds of times more funding than the average threatened or endangered species.

Disturbingly, the recovery plan dismisses the scientific debate in a few sentences. In fact, the debate has been largely one-sided. Not a single independent review has supported the claimed rediscovery of Ivory-billed Woodpecker. All independent reviews to date have reached the same conclusion: that the video from Arkansas matches a Pileated Woodpecker, and that all other evidence is, at best, inconclusive. My colleagues and I published a careful analysis of the Arkansas video (Sibley et al. 2006) showing that a Pileated Woodpecker could account for all of the observed features. The Draft Plan dismisses our work and doesn’t even mention independent published research (e.g. Collinson 2007) that fully supports our conclusions. This selective and biased presentation, and the cursory dismissal of objective science by the draft plan, is extremely troubling.

After three years of fruitless search efforts, with several studies refuting the original claim and not a single independent study supporting it, it is grossly misleading to suggest that the evidence is “convincing” and it is irresponsible to place the hypothetical needs of this species ahead of the known needs of so many others. Relentlessly pushing an expensive, single-species policy without scientific support reflects badly on the entire endangered species program. It invites criticism, fosters dissent, and erodes trust.

Ultimately, there is the simple truth that beliefs and possibilities are not a valid basis for conservation policy. Chasing hopeful stories rather than following sound science sets a very bad precedent and leads down a slippery slope where political manipulation thrives.

This recovery plan should be shelved until a real living Ivory-billed Woodpecker is found and confirmed. After three years of unsuccessful government-funded search efforts, the continuing search can safely be left to the army of highly trained and motivated volunteer birdwatchers and naturalists, and the $27 million should be distributed to those confirmed endangered species that are most likely to benefit.

The big picture

The use of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker’s questionable rediscovery as a beacon to guide and promote conservation is fraught with pitfalls. Since 2005 a tremendous amount of work has been done exclusively for this species. Some of that work will benefit other species incidentally, but we will never know what could have been accomplished if those same resources had been put to use in a more inclusive plan. Intangible gains from this episode (such as increased public awareness and engagement) are offset by long-term losses (such as disillusionment and distrust) as it becomes clear that the dream we gambled on is actually not becoming a reality.

The rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was hailed as a bright spot in the often-discouraging environmental news. It is a very alluring and positive story of hope, but its central claim is apparently false and it is promoting a fantasy – that living things are ever so resilient and that we have an opportunity for a sort of environmental salvation, a chance to redeem our past transgressions.

The story that we have a second chance with the Ivory-billed carries the dangerous implication that clear-cutting the southern hardwood forests a century ago was not as devastating as we all thought. It promotes the false hope that in spite of our unsustainable use of resources the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was able to adapt and to survive the total destruction of its habitat. And some will take the next logical step and assume that if we have a second chance to save the Ivory-billed, maybe we can continue to clear-cut and develop land and still expect a second chance to save Spotted Owl, California Gnatcatcher, and others.

Efforts to preserve and restore bottomland hardwood forests in Arkansas are laudable, and we all decry the short-sightedness that allowed the cutting of those forests seventy years ago. But even as we focus on those Arkansas forests and the plight of the Ivory-billed, we continue to demand the cutting of old-growth forests elsewhere. Our unrestrained and unrepentant consumption is still dismantling other ecosystems across the continent today. We have failed to apply the most basic lesson that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker’s history should teach us.

We all wish that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers still lived, but unrealistic hopes of the species’ survival are not helpful. We need to accept the tragic loss of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and move beyond it, in order to understand the consequences of our actions then and now. Only that will give us the clarity and the commitment needed to take on the biggest environmental challenges of the present.

Notes

1 – for a detailed review of the psychological aspects and how even scientists can succumb to wishful thinking see Risinger et al., 2002 and Gilovich, 1991.

2 – Skepticism of the Ivory-billed’s ability to hide from birders was expressed more eloquently in Rick Blom’s commentary in Bird Watcher’s Digest which was published in 2003, well before the Arkansas reports.

3 – Among many logical flaws in the supporters’ arguments is the logical fallacy known as affirming the consequent. The example from Logical Fallacies:

(1) If Zeus was a real, historical figure, but the Catholic Church covered up his existence, then we wouldn’t have any evidence of a historical Zeus today.
(2) We don’t have any evidence of a historical Zeus today.
Therefore:
(3) Zeus was a real, historical figure, but the Catholic Church covered up his existence.

This is obviously flawed, but corresponds to what Geoff Hill and others are saying:

(1) If the Ivory-billed Woodpecker survived past the 1940s, but became extremely wary and silent, we wouldn’t be able to find solid evidence of it today.
(2) We can’t find solid evidence of it today.
Therefore:
(3) The Ivory-billed Woodpecker survives but is extremely wary and silent.

Literature cited:

Blom, E. A. T. 2003. Seeking the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Bird Watcher’s Digest. Sep/Oct

Collinson, J. M. 2007. Video analysis of the escape flight of Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus: does the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis persist in continental North America? BMC Biology 5:8

Gilovich, T. 1991. How We Know What Isn’t So: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. The Free Press: New York. 218pp.

Risinger, D. M. et al. 2002. The Daubert/Kumho Implications of Observer Effects in Forensic Science: Hidden Problems of Expectation and Suggestion. California Law Review. 90:1-56

Sibley, D. A. et al. 2006. Comment on “Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America”. Science 311:1555

24 thoughts on “Ivory-billed Woodpecker – status review”

  1. Gyorgy Szimuly (SzimiStyle)

    This is a very interesting comment and summary of the hassle around the IBW. I guess you are absolutely right in questioning the dedication of the $27M for a plan which is almost waste of nothing. I guess spending such amount of money for a ghost bird is really a luxury while other birds are facing the brink of extinction. If we are not talking about the Spoon-billed Sandpiper which has a range outside of the US territory we should maybe think about the recent non reversible disappearance of the Hawaiian endemics. The very limited amount of money should be carefully assigned between such projects which can bring success and the support of the population.

  2. Now if only we could all apply your same logic to the global warming issue: “…consider the negative data…the absence of confirmation…” Obviously, global warming is just as farcical as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker’s hyper-trumped existence. Why can’t people see through this? Surely you do! And just think of the world of good it would do (not mention good for the world) if you and other well-respected experts could also lead us away from spending untold millions on global warming research, redirecting it to the legitimate conservation and engangered species programs (minus those dank and dreary southeastern swamps) that are much more deserving. I hope you agree with me.

  3. Gyorgy,

    Thank you for mentioning the Hawaiian bird endemics. The contrast could not be greater between the Ivory-billed fanfare and the relative silence about Hawaiian birds.

    Searching the Bird Life database for critically endangered or extinct birds in North America turns up 44 species, 36 of which are Hawaiian endemics! Twenty-two of those Hawaiian birds are listed as extinct, plus Hawaiian Crow which is extinct in the wild with only a few individuals surviving in captivity.

    Of the 14 Hawaiian species listed as critically endangered, the last known Po`ouli died in November 2004 http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2004/12/hawaiian_tragedy.html soon after being brought into captivity in a desperate last-ditch effort to start a captive breeding program. Only two other individuals have been seen in the wild since 1997, none since 2004, and their status is unknown.

    The Oahu Alauahio hasn’t been seen since 1985. Four other species have estimated populations below fifty individuals and trends decreasing or unknown. You don’t have to look any farther for a worthy place to apply our tax dollars to bird conservation.

  4. John Fitzpatrick was the keynote speaker at the Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival in Georgia last week. His presentation started with a discussion of the Hawaii bird extinctions, with a haunting recording of the last Po`ouli. It was a really effective talk (until the last half hour which he spent justifying the IBWO ‘rediscovery).

  5. David:

    This is a very thought-provoking and well-stated piece about the IBWO phenomenon. I also appreciate your reference to Rick Blom’s Bird Watcher’s Digest article from long before the Arkansas and Florida sightings reports.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and the facts as you see them.

    As for redirecting the federal funding to another species in peril, I’d vote for the red knot. It’s sad to think that this species may well vanish in our lifetime. It’s especially tragic because we know that we could have done a lot more to save it.–Bill Thompson, III

  6. To David Duluth re: climate change,

    I know a lot about woodpeckers and I’ve studied the evidence from top to bottom. I know virtually nothing about climate, and it would take me years to learn it, so I have no authority to make a statement. I’m sure there are biases on both sides, and I understand that there is uncertainty, but in the case of the Ivory-billed there are very few scientists who are still convinced it exists. I gather that there are large numbers of scientists who are reasonably certain that climate change is man-made and a real threat, so I don’t think the comparison of the two controversies is all that accurate. The bottom line is that I’m in no position to judge who’s right or wrong, but the scientific process works and will quickly sort it out as it has with the Ivory-billed.

  7. Gyorgy Szimuly (SzimiStyle)

    Reflecting to bt3’s comment I fully agree with Red Knot as a nice example of an ‘once common’ species. Why do we always need to wait until a species is showing such a dramatic decline? I would rather vote on spending tax-payers’ money for the protection of the commoner species. Nobody ever thought in Europe that the Common Redshank will face such a sharp loss of their population as today.

    I don’t say that we should leave alone the endangered or critical species but before the story goes never-ending the focus must be set to somewhere else.

  8. David,

    Thank you for this post, which is the sanest, calmest, classiest piece I have seen on the topic. Thanks for being a realist but resisting the temptation to show off with name calling, etc. I wish more people would follow your example.

    David

  9. Take a look at the Rusty Blackbird decline.

    http://tinyurl.com/2c7c44

    This is one of the species that WILL benefit from bottomland hardwood protection…whether done for a theoretical bird, or an actual living breathing reproducing species.
    But we still need research to get a handle on the whys of RUBL decline.

  10. Steve,
    re: Rusty Blackbirds

    Your suggestion is misleading. Nobody can say that Rusty Blackbirds “WILL benefit” from the habitat management proposed for Ivory-billeds. Rusty Blackbirds are declining, but the reasons for the decline are still unknown (so I agree with you that we need research to figure out why). Adding some bottomland hardwood forest as wintering habitat MAY help, but declines may be due to issues with pesticides, or breeding habitat, or climate change, etc.; we just don’t know.

    And it’s not as simple as just “saving habitat”. Ivory-billeds prefer old-growth, but many other species need something else. Swainson’s Warblers, for example, need patches of cane and other undergrowth, which occurs in clearings and forest edges – not so much in old-growth. Managing the White and Cache River NWR for Ivory-billeds would reduce the number of Swainson’s Warblers and other species that are currently thriving there.

    Saving bottomland forest and letting that forest mature into old-growth may be the right prescription for Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but doing so could harm other species. What if the Ivory-billed is not there? If it is there, it’s been surviving with no help in second-growth forest for decades. There’s no evidence that any habitat management is needed.

    I find this argument very frustrating. Only a small portion of the 27 million dollars proposed for Ivory-billeds is actually for habitat protection. Most of it is for searching and for habitat studies and management designed exclusively for Ivory-billeds, but it’s unlikely that there are any Ivory-billeds to reap the benefits of this work. Proponents often talk about how far-reaching the benefits will be, but the plan is exclusive and if other species benefit in some way that will be purely by coincidence.

    Yes, there is some small chance that Rusty Blackbirds will benefit from efforts to save Ivory-billeds, but if Rusty Blackbirds are in so much trouble, shouldn’t we have a dedicated effort to save them on their own merits? Instead they and other species are left to glean the few crumbs that might, purely by chance, fall their way from the Ivory-billeds riches.

  11. Just to be clear. I wasn’t saying the ends justify the means. I was saying that Rusty Blackbirds in winter use southeastern bottomland hardwoods and restoring bottomlands and/or buying the intact ones would be a good thing. Do I think we should buy farmland in AR and plant small bottomland trees and call it Ivory-billed recovery? Of course not. Especially when INTACT and mature bottomlands in other states are being destroyed as we speak.

    If I was the USFWS I would shelve the recovery plan until a BREEDING population of Ivory-billeds is found and documented by someone working independently and not funded by the scarce dollars of the USFWS.

  12. David, it is always a worthwhile discussion to decide if $27 million could better be spent elsewhere, but you shouldn’t have to use a fabrication to make your case. Your statement, “All sightings emphasize a single field mark – the white trailing edge of the wing.” is patently untrue as you ought to already be aware.

    Cornell’s seven sightings include descriptions of “a narrow red crescent on the bird’s folded crest”, “a small flash of red on the bird’s black crest”, and “long neck with white stripe, and black head with long bill”.

    Tyler Hicks’ sighting of 12/24/06 was of a perched bird at 40 feet away. He saw the “glowing” white bill, an all-black crest, white dorsal stripe, and white on the lower “back” of the perched bird. The field notes of the previous year’s sightings on the Choctawhatchee included multiple reports of field marks like an all-black head and the distinctive underwing pattern of white coverts, white secondaries and some primaries, and a black line inbetween spreading out at the primaries.

    David Kulivan got an extended look at a pair of perched birds and noted all the field marks.

    You give skepticism a bad name with such an obvious misrepresentation.

  13. I’m wondering what Mr. Sibley et al. think about Lester Short’s hypothesis, that the Ivory-billed actually depended largely on mature, fire-maintained Longleaf and Slash Pine forests. Short, I think, based his conclusions largely on the preference of the Imperial Woodpecker and the Cuban Ivory-billed for pine forests. I’ve not read the original papers, but to me, it makes a lot of sense–the IBWO declined sharply in the 1880’s, the period when the Longleaf Pine forest was nearly wiped out. (See Lawrence Earley’s Looking for Longleaf on that.) Jerome Jackson just alludes to this in his Birds of North America account–he quotes an author from the 19th century about how the bird was “once a bird of uplands”, and that would have meant Longleaf and Slash Pine forests.

    Under this hypothesis, the bottomland forest populations of Ivory-billed woodpeckers, such as that studied by Tanner, would have been remnants in sub-optimal habitat, and were probably doomed. And this would also mean that pretty much everyone has the wrong idea about Ivory-billed habitat today, both in searching and in conservation.

    I think that sort of question, probably never to be resolved, does emphasize just how little was actually known about the bird, and just how wrong-headed the current FWS recovery plan is.

  14. Gyorgy Szimuly (SzimiStyle)

    This is a very good point however. I have the same feeling when I recall some exciting talks on the results of the Slender-billed Curlew expedition organized by different groups. All the team searched the breeding habitat of this mystery species based on some historical data and habitat description. What if that paper described just an extreme habitat of SBC and the regular breeding site is completely different.

    I think besides others, Mr. Sibley (David) would be the happiest if the existence of IBW would be proved without doubt.

  15. Emupilot, re: sightings,

    Tyler Hicks does report seeing the white trailing edge as the bird flew, along with the pale bill and other features, but his sighting fails all of the other tests. He’s not using binoculars, and he’s distracted by pulling out a camera and trying to snap some pictures (but the autofocus fails), and it all happens in only a second or two! In such a brief and imperfect glimpse, any observer can grossly misinterpret the observation. There are lots of examples in birding that leave everyone, including the observers, shaking their heads and wondering how they could have been so wrong.

  16. PAL, Parent Advocate Laurie

    Who doesn’t want to believe the IBW is here and surviving? Likewise, every December, I still want to believe in Santa and there are many confirmed sightings of him. Excellent point on the dangers of believing our past insatiable consumption policy is somehow promising and redeemable. Thank you, I appreciate the insight. But honestly, when taxpayers are spending trillions to bail out banks, 27M seems like a really crappy gratuity. Luxury or not, I hate the idea of pitting species against species, but perhaps that is the reality- ugh!

  17. John D. Williams

    Mr. Sibley,

    Not sure if this is still read by you. My 14 year old son and I just returned from a 20 day birding expedition to Florida, where he evidenced many of the traits you write and debate about in these blogs– too-quick ID, desire to see rare birds, etc. We still managed to get about 30 new spp. for him, and it was a great trip. And I served as the “straight man birder” on the trip. He has a thrill for the Ivorybill. Anyway, being a teacher with some time off, I am reading about it today, reviewing the films more than I ever had, and reading comments. I see one line of logic that is not commented on that I might add for consideration.

    If the Luneau film was of a (fairly common) Pileated, and subsequently more people are filming in the same habitat, then more similar films would be shot. Since this does not seem to be the case in the last six years, this logic would favor the (near extinct) Ivorybill as the bird in the Luneau film, all other lines of inquiry being as they are.
    With all respect, and as a lowly amateur birder with a life list of < 400 spp., I see an Ivorybill jumping off a tree and flitting away in the film. I think the 8.7 wingbeats per second is key, as is the failure of duplicating the film in situ with other Pileateds (if this is so).

    John

  18. Timothy Barksdale

    As one of the very early members of the search team, I have a very different perspective. I was contacted by the Lab and employed by the Lab. My profession is wildlife film-making. I document species for a living you might say.

    In reference to the Luneau video, we first saw this in May of 2004, in Little Rock, Arkansas. While there was excitement about the video, David Luneau was balanced in his presentation. There were many technical problems, but none more than the fact that his camera was on on autofocus.

    I recall clearly walking up to DAvid, shaking his hand and saying”Congratulations, you got the bird but unfortunately, the video you’ve shot will never be more than the Sasquatch film.”

    How prophetic those words have become.
    Sincerely,

    Timothy R. Barksdale
    Managing Member, Birdman Productions, LLC

    1. I was not criticizing David Luneau. He had a video, and presented it to the team. The fundamental problem is that nobody put on the brakes. Then they ended up at the press conference a year later telling hundreds of reporters that this is “rock-solid proof”. Your comparison to the Sasquatch film shows that from the very beginning you knew it would never be “rock-solid proof”, so the announcement should have been “We have reason to believe that there are still Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas, and we will continue searching”. The scientists on the team should have known that. Imagine how much of this fiasco could have been avoided if the initial announcement had been more realistic. Ultimately that was Fitzpatrick’s responsibility, but he decided to go with the overblown media hype that has brought us to this point.

  19. What disturbs me about this whole debate is not the fact that the scientific community has declared the bird extinct, but rather the fact that “Science” is too proud to accept and consider reasonable evidence that the birds still exist. It seems as if many of the so-called experts are almost unhappy that there is a chance the birds are still around. One would think that bird enthusiasts would be willing to admit that they were wrong if it meant the rediscovery of a species though to be extinct. Perhaps the real issue is that most of the evidence produced has been by members of the common horde and therefore unacceptable to the scholarly pillars of the scientific community.

    1. Josh, The scientific community has considered all of the recent evidence objectively and fairly, and found it inconclusive. You obviously don’t like that result, but you can’t blame the scientists. There is nothing more to say unless new evidence comes along.

  20. Watch this video right here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2_DXG3vsEo

    Faint double knock at 14:51. Listen closely.

    Watch the slow motion video from 18:21 to 18:23.

    OK its not an Ivory Bill then what is it? What other bird on planet earth folds its wings like a large woodpecker in flight, flies straight like a duck with white trailing edges?

    This evidence is better than the Luneau video by far because he has the audio with the double knock, the speed, the flight mechanics, the wing shape and the white trailing edges from above.

    Would like to hear the scientific explanation of this.

  21. As for this eternal saga, I have never understood the prioritization in search efforts, fully and completely in the US (last record 1944), hardly in Cuba (last record 1987).

  22. I consider myself an amateur in all of this bird
    watching and controversy over the existence/sightings of the ivory billed woodpecker. I believe I have seen, videoed and photographed a woodpecker in a pine tree busily knocking off the bark of a limb here in my South Carolina backyard by a lagoon. (Granted, not the Zabruder film) but I would like to get an opinion from a learned bird watcher (regardless of the million dollar controversy).
    Can you suggest a way to proceed with that endeavor?
    Regards

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *