The Woodpecker War: Is the ‘Lord God Bird’ Extinct?...As the government prepares to make the call, birders are divided over whether the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker still exists

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 3, 2023 10:18 am ET | By Ryan Felton

[Red Badger]

In Texas, a man claims to see the mysterious black-and-white woodpecker a few times a week on his land near an airport in Longview. A woman in North Carolina says one regularly visits bird feeders at her home. Another insists she encountered it nearly 20 years ago in Florida.

“I KNOW what I saw, and I’m thrilled to have seen him,” she wrote in July to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The federal agency isn’t entirely convinced.

In late 2021, the U.S. government sparked a fierce flap in ornithological circles when it said the ivory-billed woodpecker—a majestic bird with a nearly 3-foot wingspan—was gone for good, after official sightings hadn’t been documented in roughly eight decades.

The declaration has divided both hobbyists and professional birders alike. Ornithologists and researchers cite recent, grainy images of what they say suggests the ivory-billed woodpecker is indeed still alive.

Others are pushing back, saying it is time to move on.

“A suggestive video is not good enough,” says John Dillon, a past president of the Louisiana Ornithological Society and a member of the state’s rare-birds record committee.

Mr. Dillon argues that all the time and money the government is spending on this woodpecker could be put to better use restoring wetlands and protecting wildlife that is irrefutably still alive.

He isn’t trying to ruffle any feathers here, but says, “There’s not a lot of difference between finding the bird or proving that Noah’s ark was real.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has collected more than 200 comments on its proposal to end the woodpecker’s endangered-species status, and along with it, the funding to protect the bird’s habitat and population recovery.

[FamiliarFace]

Thanks for the tips!

[FamiliarFace]

That would be my guess, as well. From underneath and in motion it might be difficult to discern the two. Really would need to see from above or a side view, but if they are in the tree tops, that would be hard to see.

[FamiliarFace]

That’s pretty cool.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger.

The rest of the keyword, sorted:

• US says ivory-billed woodpecker, 22 other species extinct [09/29/2021]
• Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Sighted and Recorded [04/29/2011]
• Ivory-billed woodpecker: The Elvis of the swamps [04/10/2007]
• Birders Excited About Woodpecker Sightings (Ivory Bill - Florida) [09/26/2006]
• Woodpecker halts Ark. irrigation project - Disputed woodpecker halts project [07/20/2006]
• Doubts cast on superstar woodpecker's return [03/13/2006]
• Rare Woodpecker Search Sheds Light on Bigfoot [01/18/2006]
• Search for Ivory Bill Woodpecker Continues [12/18/2005]
• Hunters helped save rare bird from extinction [12/13/2005]
• Confirmed: Ivory Billed Woodpecker Lives [08/01/2005]
• Study questions April discovery of rare woodpecker [07/21/2005]
• Downtrodden Arkansas towns see salvation in rediscovered bird [ivory-billed woodpecker] [05/21/2005]
• Found in Arkansas: Hope on Wings [05/03/2005]
• Deep in the Swamp, an 'Extinct' Woodpecker Lives [04/28/2005]
• Long thought extinct, ivory-billed woodpecker rediscovered in Big Woods of Arkansas [04/28/2005]

[BozoTexino]

I truly hope they still exist. Magnificent birds. My bucket list was added to recently when I got to see a Painted Bunting at my sister’s place in the Texas Hill Country. Beautiful birds.

[mumblypeg]

There has definitely been one of these on my property for several years. I hear & see one pecking away at the top of a lamp post & in the catawba tree outside my kitchen window.

I’ve got roadrunners, too. They really do go, “meep meep.”

[FamiliarFace]

I’ve only seen Roadrunners in photos or illustrations (or cartoons). Never in real life.

[FamiliarFace]

Painted Bunting is on my bucket list of “wish to see” birds. The photos of them that I’ve seen are beautiful.

Every now and again in the summer I get to see an Indigo Bunting, though I think he should be called a Turquoise or Aqua Bunting because the blue is more like those than indigo, IMHO.

A neighbor who grew up in this town said that when she was a little girl, they were all over the park near where we live. Now they are harder to find.

[blam]

I see the pilated woodpecker around here from time to time.

The Yellow Hammer Woodpecker is the Alabama state bird.

BTW

-Roll Tide-

[FamiliarFace]

I call those Northern Flickers, and yes, I love them. That one is a female; the male has a mustache. We have those here every day also. I have named mine Flynn for the boy, and Felicia for the girl, even though I know we have more than one of each. Out west they have red on the underside of the wings. One of my very favorite birds.

[FamiliarFace]

Here’s one of “Flynn”

“Felicia”

[FamiliarFace]

Underwings of a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

[blam]

Nice pictures, thanks.

[BozoTexino]

My sister’s land is in the scrubby hills near Marble Falls, Tx. She sees Painted Buntings fairly frequently but I got to see one about a year ago.

[FamiliarFace]

Very cool. I was on the Florida/Georgia border a couple of years ago, and the park ranger told me that the Painted Buntings would be coming through in April or May, and to come back then. Fat chance. This was February and I had been visiting family the week before. And guess what? Lockdowns happened a couple of weeks after we got back to Indiana. I have no idea when I’ll get a chance to see one, but the photos of them are stunning. You and your sister are blessed!