Evidence for IBWO in Florida

[semillama]

Here's a link to the paper by Hill et al presenting the results of their attempts to document Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers in Florida:

http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/

Here's the abstract:

"The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) disappeared from the forests of southeastern North America in the early 20th Century and for more than 50 years has been widely considered extinct. On 21 May 2005, we detected a bird that we identified as an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the mature swamp forest along the Choctawhatchee River in the panhandle of Florida. During a subsequent year of research, members of our small search team observed birds that we identified as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers on 14 occasions. We heard sounds that matched descriptions of Ivory-billed Woodpecker acoustic signals on 41 occasions. We recorded 99 putative double knocks and 210 putative kent calls. We located cavities in the size range reported for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and larger than those of Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) that have been reported in the literature or that we measured in Alabama. We documented unique foraging signs consistent with the feeding behavior of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. Our evidence suggests that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may be present in the forests along the Choctawhatchee River and warrants an expanded search of this bottomland forest habitat."

still no photos, but circumstantial evidence mounts...

[zonkers]

1. Thanks. Thumbs up on birding. I will add thread to my custom page. Kick!

[zonkers]

2. As far as the citizens of boiling spring lakes deforesting their land to

prevent the Ivories from nesting, thats just awful. They really could be doing something positive instead.

[vireo]

3. Those were red-cockaded woodpeckers

But it raises the question, what is the status of this swamp forest?

[semillama]

4. One of the members of my bird group is going looking

in the region in FL where they were spotted.

He's a really good birder, and he says he thinks he's actually seen one before, a flyover in AK, back in the 80s. He says a lot of birders have seen them, but were afraid to come forward due to the instant ridicule you would face before now.