Sightings spur rush to aid ‘extinct’ woodpecker

Demise tied to logging
The ivory-billed woodpecker, one of the largest such birds in the world, is one of six North American bird species thought to have become extinct since 1880. While rare, the bird ranged widely across the southeastern United States until logging eliminated many forests between 1880 and the 1940s.

There have been anecdotal reports of the birds, but the last conclusive sighting in continental North America was in 1944. A subspecies of the bird has been reported in Cuba.

The new sightings each involved a different person or group, Fitzpatrick said.

About 40 percent of the forest in this region is approaching maturity, and nearby land has been reforested in the last decade.

First report in 2004
The bird is larger than a pileated woodpecker, which is similar in appearance and has the black-and-while markings of the ivory-billed bird.

The Nature Conservancy, which has protected a large segment of land in the area, reported that the first sighting came on Feb. 11, 2004, by Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Ark.

"It was an unbelievable blessing placed before me," Sparling told reporters.

After learning of the sighting, Tim Gallagher of Cornell and Bobby Harrison of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala., traveled to the area with Sparling and also sighted the bird. Gallagher said the experience rendered him speechless and brought Harrison to tears.

Other sightings followed, including one on April 25, 2004, in which David Luneau of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock videotaped the bird taking off from the trunk of a tree.

The Nature Conservancy reported 15 sightings of the bird in 7,000 hours of search time concentrating on a 16-square-mile area.

Not sightseeing-friendly
People are likely to flock to the area to try to see the birds themselves, but it will be difficult, Gill said.

“It is not something you just go down and see. Your odds are very low,” Gill said. “It is remote, difficult country. This time of year it is getting very buggy and very snaky and there is a lot of foliage.”

Interior Secretary Norton warned birdwatchers not to go overboard: "Don't love this bird to death," she said.

Gill said the discovery could turn the Big Woods area into a "globally important bird wildlife area" — a development that would be welcomed by conservationists concerned about shrinking woodlands. Scott Simon, director of the Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, said the region was "the Amazon of North America."

“This area was once the largest expanse of forested wetlands in the country, originally consisting of 21 million acres of bottomland hardwood forests. Today, only 4.9 million acres remain, mostly in scattered woodland patches,” the Nature Conservancy says on its Web site.

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