Jon Dunn on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
ByIt’s very sad, but the latest report of the ABA Checklist Committee probably sums it up: there’s no evidence whatsoever that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker survives.
And here’s what the new, sixth edition of the National Geographic Field Guide has to say:
…intense searching subsequently [after the April 2005 announcement] has yet to produce more documentation, [a circumstance] seemingly not possible in an age when most rarities discovered are photographed and those images are posted on the Internet the same day…. sightings that lack provable evidence more likely represent wishful thinking.
The seventh edition will see that fine bird relegated to the appendix shared by Eskimo Curlew, Bachman’s Warbler, and Labrador Duck.
Oh, to have been born 150 years earlier! No, never mind.
4 Comments
November 29th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
I have to finish making my t-shirt idea: IBWO: I believe.
November 30th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
it’s really going overboard to say “there’s no evidence whatsoever that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker survives” — there’s actually quite a bit of evidence, it’s just not been replicable enough nor strong enough to meet the very high bar required for this particular remote-habitat, cavity-dwelling species. And plenty of avian species have been ‘re-discovered’ after 50-60+ years of disappearance. We remain a long way from certitude on the matter — that’s not wishful thinking; that’s just open, objective, scientific consideration of ALL the claims and findings out there.
November 30th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
No reasonable person can believe that the species survives. It’s incredibly sad.
December 3rd, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Dear Rick,
The Quantuck Lane Press is publishing a compelling novel about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker titled THE LORD GOD BIRD by Tom Gallant (publication date: April 17, 2012). Please feel free to email me your shipping address if you’d like to receive an early review copy. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on it.
Best Wishes, Rebecca