The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is the largest woodpecker in North America. It is about the size of an American Crow and is similar in appearance to the relatively common Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). Click here for a comparison of the two birds (511KB PDF file).
About ibwo.org
ibwo.org is about my involvement with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker rediscovery in Arkansas and my conviction that it is important to conserve the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas and other natural areas of our world.
I began searching in Arkansas in 2003, the year before the initial sighting by Gene Sparling. After Gene's sighting, I spent many hours in the swamp and captured a video of the bird in April 2004. My interest and involvement continues, and this website is my way of sharing it with you.
You can read more about my searching on the Search History page.
Terri Luneau (my wife) wrote Big Woods Bird: An Ivory-bill Story, the first children's book on the subject of searching for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. We use the book to talk to children about the importance of conservation and to try to inspire them to learn more about birds and the natural world around them.
Hardback and paperback editions available
July 19, 2010
The Recovery Plan for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (4.7 MB PDF) is now officially published. It is a very thorough 155 page document that covers issues such as habitat, conservation, education, and much more.
Appendix B, US FWS statement on existing evidence for Ivory-billed Woodpecker occurrence in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas and elsewhere in the Southeastern U.S., was particularly interesting to me. Because of all the press given to the naysayers, I am frequently asked questions like, "So, was that bird really there?" For the official position of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the organization tasked with managing endangered species in the United States, I can now refer reporters and other interested parties to the official document.
Appendix B is three pages long, so I won't repeat it all here. I would encourage you to read it if you are interested in the official position on the "battle of the evidence." Here are a few telling excerpts:
"Our review of the presented arguments leads us to conclude that the alternative interpretations of Sibley et al. (2006) and Collinson (2007) fail to credibly support their assertion that the woodpecker in the Luneau video could reasonably be a Pileated Woodpecker."
"In conclusion, the FWS accepts the original Fitzpatrick et al. (2005) interpretation of the Luneau video and other evidence gathered during the last five years as the best information available to support the hypothesis that Ivory-billed Woodpecker has persisted into the 21st Century. On the basis of this conclusion, the FWS will continue to appropriately act on behalf of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker under the authority of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended."
So, it's now official.
Peeper paper published - The paper that Brandon Noel and I co-authored detailing the wireless cavity-viewing camera that I modified for his use has been published in Vol. 81, No. 2 of the Journal of Field Ornithology. If you are interested in a PDF copy of the paper, just email me a request (david AT ibwo.org) and I will send you a copy.
Peeper Cam Background - Over the past few years I have been occasionally helping Brandon Noel, who is working on his PhD at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro under Dr. Jim Bednarz. In the picture at the right, you can see Brandon (right) and his brother Duane raising a wireless cavity-peeping camera to a Pileated Woodpecker (PIWO) nest cavity. Brandon is studying PIWOs over a several-year period in eastern Arkansas for his PhD project. Brandon and his field crew have monitored numerous nests and radio-tagged many birds to study their movements. He and his crew have worked extensively in both the White River and Cache River National Wildlife Refuges. They keep an eye out for IBWOs as well.
The nest cavity in the Water Tupelo (pictured at right) is 49' high, which makes getting a peeper-cam mounted on a wobbly 50' telescoping pole into a ~3.5" diameter cavity an extreme challenge. To make matters worse, the sun was almost directly above, so seeing the cavity from the ground was very difficult. The camera swayed about on the end of the pole and finally went into the cavity. There were two eggs in the cavity (the video taken by the wireless camera is recorded on a camcorder on the ground for later reference).
Click on the picture for a larger version - look for the wireless camera at the top of the white pole.
The one-minute video below shows the camera in action at this cavity:
6th anniversary - April 25, 2010, marked six years since I took the video. Coincidentally, perhaps, there was a nice article on the search and conservation efforts in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on April 23. (I'm not sure how long this link will work.) Happy searching to all!
Promising technology - Mark Gahler of South Run Avian Bioacoustics has developed some listening devices that filter sounds for double-knocks, record the "good" sounds, and send back samples via the cellular network to an FTP site. He designed and built the units himself and has deployed some in Louisiana and Arkansas. We deployed three acoustic units and one cell node a couple of weeks ago. When Mark gets some of the initial problems resolved, this will be a good technology for listening for IBWOs or other vocalizers of interest.
The acoustic node (seen at right) hangs unobtrusively high in a tree. The cellular node is similar in size and appearance and is also deployed high (10m+) in a tree.
The loudest thing in the swamp - Check out the 2/19/10 27-sec video of a very vocal Canada Goose below. Also, I recorded some large woodpecker foraging sounds (1MB mp3 file, 1 min 15 sec). I glimpsed a bird flying away, but never got a look at it. It didn't show up on the video - the bird was apparently foraging almost at the water level, and I was aiming the camera a little higher trying to find it. Oh well.
Thanks - Many thanks to the East Cascades Bird Conservancy members in Bend, OR, for coming to hear me talk at Birders Night on November 19, 2009. I hope you all enjoyed it and learned some new things about IBWOs and the search findings.
Entertaining reading - Bill Pulliam's blog describes in a very entertaining, eloquent, and scientific manner his experiences searching for IBWOs in Tennessee.
A Pileated Woodpecker nest exchange - while working with Brandon Noel, we monitored a Pileated nest to verify that it was still an active nest and to verify that the male's electronic transmitter was still functioning. We could see the female look out of the nest a couple of times before the male arrived, so we knew the nest was still active. We picked up the male's radio signal - which indicated he was getting closer - so the transmitter was still working.
The video was handheld with full zoom, so it is a little shaky. Plus, a mosquito lit on my left ear and started biting me during the video. I'm not so tough, so I swatted him, adding to the video shaking.
Listen closely and see if you can hear the following birds singing in the video: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Northern Parula, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee, White-throated Sparrow, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Prothonotary Warbler. If you hear others that I missed, let me know. Enjoy the video!
Creativity - Someone in northeastern Arkansas spotted an IBWO in a lone snag. (Photo courtesy of T.J. Henwood.)
The tree can be found on Ark. Hwy. 226, just east of Ark. Hwy. 67. You must be driving west to see it according to the photographer.
Reward - A reward for information that leads to a photo or video of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been offered. Be sure to read all the fine print - you must provide compelling information and lead a project scientist to a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Click on the image and you can view a larger PDF version of the reward poster for all the details.
We received pictures along with a sighting report on Nov 18, 2008, that turned out to be a picture of a Pileated Woodpecker. But, it's good to know that people are out there looking and understand the need for a picture.
Woodpecker film - Alex Karpovsky's film Woodpecker is making the film festival circuit. I saw it with a group of IBWO folks in October 2008 in Memphis. It is a very funny movie - well worth seeing! It's a blend of reality and fiction, put together with an intriguing story line. Don't look for the true IBWO story here, just some good laughs. It reminded me a bit of Sideways - quirky characters and a funny story. Check out the schedule and read more about the movie at www.woodpeckerfilm.com. There are now DVDs for sale at places like amazon.com.
Irfanview - Yes, it's a strange name, but it's a piece of free software for viewing images, and it works much better than Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, which is what I have used for the past few years. I have updated my Reconyx review tips page to describe how to review images using Irfanview.
Errors in Science - An article in the 17 August 2007 edition of the journal Science titled "Gambling on a Ghost Bird" attempted to summarize the history of the rediscovery in Arkansas as well as the current status of the bird. There were numerous errors of fact made by the author, which I address here. I made no attempt to address the errors made in the form of quotes by Jackson, Prum, Sibley, and others - just the errors made by Erik Stolstad, the author. (I submitted the errors to Science but they opted not to publish them. It troubles me that a journal of such high reputation is not interested in correcting errors in "news" stories. Even newspapers offer corrections when they make mistakes.)
Great quote - This quote summarizes my thoughts regarding conservation and how each of us can help: "In the end we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
Baba Dioum, 1968
Every bird is assigned such a code, and there are easy rules. Read about the naming rules here. For more information contact david AT ibwo.org
All content on this website © David Luneau unless otherwise indicated.