By Susan Milius
There’s no photo, but an ornithological search team says that its sightings, plus signs on trees and recorded sounds, suggest that a few ivory-billed woodpeckers still live along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle.
The big, showy species had been widely presumed extinct by the end of the 20th century. But hopes of the bird’s survival rose in 2005 when a Cornell University–led team released sound recordings and a blurry video as corroboration of their reported ivory-billed sightings in Arkansas. Other bird experts have disputed the video evidence, and the birding community now agrees only on the need for clearer proof of the species’ survival (SN: 3/25/06, p. 189: Available to subscribers at Woodpecker video is challenged and defended).