Posted something similar years ago. The idea there maybe a few around has always interested me. They probably died off years ago but there is always hope. Maybe hanging out with Bigfoot and Aliens. Think there are anyway Ivory Billeds around?

No. One would of shown up at someone's feeder by now.

Certainly more plausible to believe that a documented species still has a small remnant population holding out somewhere than it is to believe sasquatch is out there...

How vast are any southern wilderness areas? Are there pockets of wild ground that could hide them without some hunter or fisherman occasionally seeing one?

They have sopspably been seen in Pennsylvania in recent times. Don't know!!

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/cjRwbf1N5DQ?[/video]

Yes....in the Okefenokee Swamp. Much of the Swamp's 700 square miles are inaccessible. Canoe trails that have been grown over since the early 1900s. Huge cypress forest and mature pine islands that will never be accessible......miles from the nearest maintained boat run.

In 2005, Cornell University found some evidence of Ivory Billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas, but I don't think there's been anything substantial found since, though a great many people have looked.

Keith

Thank you for the information, Swamp Wolf.

Is there a difference between an Ivory billed woodpecker and a pileated woodpecker? There are plenty of pileated ones around my place. They were on my suet feeders all winter.

Yes...IBWP is larger and has a much larger beak that is light-colored. Their feet are larger too.

Feather coloration is slightly different also.

Very Big difference shown in this Cornell university video

Ivory Bills have been a Phoenix Bird for over 100 years. They have been thought extinct several times, only to swoop out of the past and come back from the ashes. It happened in 1924 when Aurthur Allen, a well known Ornithologist, discovered a pair in Florida and photographed them. Both of those birds were shot by local collectors soon after. They turned up in the 1930's near Tahlullah (sp?), LA. in what was called the Singer Tract.....an 80'000 acre bottonland hardwoods parcel owned by the Singer sewing machine company. That small population was studied by James Tanner and believed to have been the last of them. When WW2 came, the Singer Tract was logged and most "experts" declared them once again extinct. Funny thing was/is, they keep popping up every now and again.......much to the chagrin of those so-called experts, and to the delight of birders everywhere. I personally believe they are holding out in very, very small numbers. Whether or not they can survive the botteleneck they have been squeezed through is yet to be seen. There have been claims, almost yearly, of sightings.....literally dozens of times. Even if 90% of these sightings are wrong, what about the 10% that aren't? People talk as if these birds are holed up in only the wildest most nasty swamps left, but I think they are nomads that travel widely in search of their favorite food, but are enough of a generalist as feeders that they make do even if there happens to be no abundance of stressed trees loaded with their favorite grubs. Black Backed Woodpeckers do the same thing in my part of the country....they are famous for nesting in forests recently burned over. These birds don't read the newspars to find their closest burned over country, they apparently wander all over and zero in when an optimal area is found. Likely as not Ivory Bills do the same. The good news is that their habitat is getting better and better each year. Beaver alone are now thick throughout the entire old range of these birds and kill thousands of acres of bottomland forests every year. Not so good for a forester, but good if you are a big white billed woodpecker that delights in stripping the bark on freshly dead trees to find a snack!

I remember reading about them being spotted in Louisiana and another report of a Cuba variety alive and well in Cuba

Is the white on the head and body the best way to differentiate them? Seems like itd be easy to confuse the two for "sightings"?

Google: "Identifying an Ivory-billed Woodpecker requires looking for its distinctive stark white wing panels, a pale, chisel-tipped ivory bill, and a solid black back. It is often confused with the more common Pileated Woodpecker"

They are as different as night and day if you are familiar with the Pileated Woodpecker.

Oh ok. Thank you. I just thought the one picture of the Ivory sure looked a lot like the Pileated and figured there was a male female differences between the two and thought I would ask someone that seemed to know a lot about it.