The Ivory-billed Woodpecker

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The Ivory-billed
Woodpecker
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
2
On February 11, 2004, kayaker
Gene Sparling caught a glimpse
of a large and majestic
woodpecker in the Cache River
National Wildlife Refuge of
Arkansas. The encounter
spurred an extensive scientific
search for a species that many
feared extinct. Additional
sightings and a video from the
search have shown that the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker — what
John James Audubon referred
to as the “great chieftain of the
woodpecker tribe” — has cheated
extinction and so given future
generations a chance to view
this majestic species.
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The Ivory-billed Woodpecker
resembles its more common, but
slightly smaller cousin, the Pileated
Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).
Often seen in suburban as well as
more forested settings, the Pileated
Woodpecker averages 17 inches in
length, has black trailing edges on
the wings, a solid black back, and red
and white on the face. By comparison,
the Red-headed Woodpecker
(Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is only
nine inches long. Adults have a solid
red head without a crest, while
immatures have a mottled gray head.
Description
At 20 inches in length, the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker (Campephilus
principalis) is among the world’s
largest woodpeckers. The wings show
a white trailing edge from above and
below. These white wing patches fold
to form a white “shield” or “saddle”
on the black back when the bird is
perched. A white line forms below
the eye, runs down the neck, and onto
the back of the bird. The face is
largely black, as is the chin. Males
have a prominent red crest; the
female’s crest is black.
Red-headed
Woodpecker
White trailing
edge of wing
Pileated
Woodpecker
Ivory-billed
Woodpecker
Cover photo: USFWS/
Larry Richardson;
illustrations above:
© David Allen Sibley
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Cache River National Wildlife Refuge
USFWS/Larry Richardson
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Male
Ivory-billed
Woodpecker
Male
Pileated
Woodpecker
Illustrations above:
© David Allen Sibley
Life History and Reproductive Biology
Knowledge about Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers is limited because
there have been few in-depth studies
of the species. Most of the
information known about the species
comes from a three-year study
conducted by James Tanner of a
population of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers from what was known
as the Singer Tract in northeast
Louisiana. Tanner found that the
ivory-bill is usually territorial, but
when resources dictate it can be
nomadic. He estimated a home range
varying from one pair per six square
miles to one pair per seventeen
square miles. The ivory-bill needs a
much larger range as compared to
the Pileated Woodpecker (six pairs
per one square mile) or Red-bellied
Woodpecker (21 pairs per one square
mile). In poorer foraging habitat,
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers’ home
range size may be even larger.
Most ornithologists who studied the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker, beginning
with Audubon and continuing
through Tanner, believed that it
mated for life. Ornithologists today
speculate that the birds may live
between 10 and 15 years.
It is thought that breeding is initiated
between January and April. A pair
excavates a cavity that is 15 to 70 feet
high in a dead tree or the dead portion
of a live tree where fungus has
softened the wood. A site under a
broken limb may be favored for the
protection it offers from sun, rain and
predators. The nest entrance is oval,
taller than wide, and larger than a
typical Pileated Woodpecker’s
entrance. The clutch size is two to four
eggs and only one clutch is laid in a
year. Both sexes incubate the eggs
and feed their young, which remain
with the parents through the summer
and in some cases until the following
nesting season.
James Tanner’s
photo of an Ivory-billed
Woodpecker
at the Singer Tract,
Louisiana, 1935,
Arthur A. Allen/
courtesy of David
Allen.
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Vocalizations
The call of the ivory-bill is a nasal-sounding
kent – – often described as
sounding similar to the toot of a tin
horn. Ivory-bills are also known for
the unique double-knock they make
when striking a tree with their beaks.
Ornithologists believe this double-knock
is used for family groups or
mated pairs to keep in contact, for
announcing territorial boundaries to
other ivory-bills in the vicinity, and to
locate a mate. Most woodpeckers in
the ivory-bill’s genus (Campephilus)
make a similar double-knock.
The call of the ivory-bill was
originally recorded during the 1935
Brand-Cornell University-American
Museum of Natural History
Ornithological Expedition, organized
by Dr. Arthur Allen, founder of the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The 1935
sounds and video of the ivory-bill
were captured on the Singer Tract in
Louisiana by Peter Paul Kellogg, who
used a movietone system. These 1935
recordings are still used today for
playback by ivory-bill searchers.
They are also the sounds against
which modern recordings of possible
kent calls are checked.
Today researchers are using devices
called autonomous recording units
(ARUs). The ARU, which was
invented by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research
Program, includes a small hard drive
that is programmed to run at peak
times of activity for ivory-bills.
During the 2004–2005 search in the
Big Woods of Arkansas, 24 ARUs
were used to capture more than
18,000 hours of sounds. Cornell
researchers believe that a number of
sounds captured on these Arkansas
recordings may be those of the ivory-bill.
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Diet and Foraging
Behavior
Ivory-bills are
specialists in
their feeding
habits and feed
frequently on
beetle larvae
associated with
recently dead
and dying trees.
The birds use
their chisel-like
bills as wedges to
pry bark to
obtain the beetle
larvae located
underneath. The
ivory-bill seems
to prefer
members of the
long-horned
beetle family,
Cerambycidae,
and other wood
boring beetle larvae. Birds may
range widely in search of recently
dead trees that harbor these larvae.
Various nuts (pecans) and fruits
(hackberry, persimmon, and grapes)
are part of the diet as well. Events
that kill large numbers of trees such
as hurricanes, ice storms, floods,
drought, fires, disease and insect
infestations are believed to provide
excellent habitat for ivory-bills.
Historical Distribution and Abundance
Ivory-bills once inhabited large
blocks of mature forests in the
southeastern United States, from
North Carolina to Florida and west
to eastern Texas and Arkansas. They
were also known to inhabit old-growth
pine forests in Cuba.
Ornithologists believe the species was
never abundant since populations
were limited by the availability of
dying and recently dead trees for
foraging and trees large enough to
support cavities for roosting and
nesting.
Above: J.J. Kuhn
(left) and Paul
Kellogg record
sounds of the
Ivory-billed
Woodpecker at the
Singer Tract in
Louisiana during
the 1935 Ornitho-logical
Expedition
organized by
Arthur A. Allen of
Cornell, courtesy
James Tanner.
Below: Ron
Rohrbaugh,
director of the
Ivory-billed
Woodpecker
Research Project at
Cornell, puts up an
autonomous
recording unit
(ARU) in the Big
Woods of Arkansas,
Cornell Lab of
Ornithology/
Melanie Driscoll.
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The ivory-bill’s
precipitous decline began
in the latter half of the
19th century as forests
were cut to support a
growing demand for wood
products and cleared for
settlement and agriculture.
Technology and the
resource demands of two
world wars increased the
logging rate in the 20th
century, further decimating
essential habitat. In
addition, excessive
collection of birds for
commercial, recreational,
scientific, and educational purposes
also contributed to declines as the
range became restricted. By 1939,
James Tanner estimated that 22–24
birds remained in the United States.
Only widely scattered, large remnants
of mature, seasonally flooded forest
provide the best potential for habitat
today. Recent decades of
reforestation and improved forest
management practices should provide
more habitat as stands mature.
The Singer Tract and the
Disappearance of the Ivory-bill
By the 1920s, ornithologists believed
that only a few Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers remained and that the
species was headed for extinction.
Rumors of a population along the
Tensas River in northeast Louisiana
proved true when a Louisiana state
legislator shot one in 1932 on an
80,000-acre tract owned by the
Timber harvest
near White River
National Wildlife
Refuge in
Arkansas, 1940,
USFWS.
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Singer Sewing
Machine
Company. Word
of this
‘rediscovery’
spread, giving
ornithologists
hope that if the
Singer Tract
could be
protected, the
species might
survive.
Sponsored by
the National
Audubon Society,
James Tanner, a
doctoral student
at Cornell
University,
conducted a
detailed study of the species’ biology,
ecology, and distribution from 1937–
1939. Tanner wrote the definitive
book on Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
based on his findings.
The same year Tanner began his
research, the Singer Company sold
logging rights on their property to
the Chicago Mill and Lumber
Company. In 1938, logging began.
Tanner believed that logging and the
ivory-bill could co-exist, and outlined
a land management plan for the
Singer Tract that would reserve some
areas, selectively cut others, and
clear cut others. He provided this
plan to Chicago Mill, but his
recommendations were ignored.
During his years at the Singer Tract,
Tanner saw the population decline to
only six birds.
John Baker, president of the National
Audubon Society, appealed to
President Franklin Roosevelt, who
directed the Secretary of Interior to
try to save the land. Baker secured a
$200,000 pledge from Louisiana
Governor Sam Jones to purchase the
James Tanner on
the Singer Tract in
the 1930s. Photo
from Tanner’s
collection.
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property. Jones, along with the
governors of Tennessee, Mississippi,
and Arkansas, wrote to Chicago Mill
asking them to conserve the habitat
to save the bird. Despite these
efforts, the company refused to
cooperate.
Running out of options, Baker sent
National Audubon Society’s Richard
Pough to the Singer Tract in
December 1943 to search for another
bird. At a place called John’s Bayou,
Pough sighted what was until now
believed to be the last Ivory-billed
Woodpecker in the United States.
Artist Don Eckelberry, who also
worked for the National Audubon
Society, visited the same spot in April
1944 and drew one final sketch of the
bird as logging crews devasted the
forest near the bird’s roost tree.
Donald Eckelberry’s
painting of what has
until now been
believed to be the last
Ivory-billed
Woodpecker in the
United States.
Eckelberry painted
the bird flying across
the cutover forest of
the Singer Tract in
April, 1944. Courtesy
Jerome A. Jackson.
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Above: a tree with
bark and wood
stripped. Below:
expanded view of
woodpecker bill
marks found on
bark-scaled tree in
the White River
National Wildlife
Refuge. Possible
evidence of the
presence of the
Ivory-bill. Both
USFWS/Steve
Holzman.
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Jackson County
1986
Possible Encounters of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
1944 to present
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Since the ivory-bill’s last
confirmed sighting in the
United States at the Singer
Tract in 1944, there have
been many unconfirmed
reports of the bird. Data
taken from “In Search of the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker”
by Jerome A. Jackson and
USFWS files.
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Post 1940s sightings
The last widely-accepted sightings of
the birds in the United States were
those that took place at the Singer
Tract. However, there have been
numerous intriguing reports of ivory-bills
since that time.
John Dennis was a prominent
woodpecker biologist who in 1948
snapped the last scientifically
accepted photographs ever taken of
an ivory-bill in Cuba. In 1966, Dennis
reported seeing a female ivory-bill in
The Big Thicket of east Texas, but
his sighting could not be confirmed
by subsequent searchers.
While other promising reports,
including fleeting glimpses and
possible calls, have come from places
like the Atchafalaya Basin in
Louisiana, the Okefenokee Swamp in
Georgia, the Yazoo River in
Mississippi, the Pearl River in
Louisiana and the Santee Basin in
South Carolina, none of these
sightings have resulted in conclusive
physical evidence.
Tim Barksdale
(Birdman
Productions) and
Marc Dantzker
(Cornell Lab of
Ornithology),
videographers for
the ivory-bill
search team,
Cornell Lab of
Ornithology,
Elliott Swarthout.
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Rediscovery, 2004
On February 11, 2004, kayaker Gene
Sparling observed a huge and
unusual woodpecker in the Cache
River National Wildlife Refuge of
Arkansas. Tim Gallagher of Cornell
University and Bobby Harrison of
Oakwood College visited the swamp
with Sparling two weeks later and
had a close-up sighting of presumably
the same bird. This was the first time
in more than 60 years
that two qualified
observers together had
identified an Ivory-billed
Woodpecker in the
United States. These
sightings spurred an
extensive scientific
search, launched in
March 2004 by the Big
Woods Conservation
Partnership which
includes the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology, The Nature
Conservancy, Arkansas Game and
Fish Commission and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service.
The search team included more than
100 individuals who spent up to 14
hours a day in canoes looking for the
bird in the swampy bayous of eastern
Arkansas. The team’s work was
focused at Cache River and White
River Refuges and nearby wildlife
management areas managed by the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
This initial five-month search season
resulted in at least seven credible
sightings of an Ivory-billed
Woodpecker, and a brief video filmed
by David Luneau of the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock. After
extensive analysis, the video was
determined to be an ivory-bill. More
than 18,000 hours of audio recordings
during the combined 2004 and 2005
search periods also captured what
researchers believe is the ‘double-knock’
and kent call of the ivory-bill.
Bobby Harrison
searches for Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers
in the Cache River
National Wildlife
Refuge. He and
colleague Tim
Gallagher
identified an
ivory-bill there on
February 27, 2004.
The Nature
Conservancy/
Mark Godfrey.
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From Discovery to Recovery
Although the ivory-bill was listed as
an endangered species in 1967, it was
the rediscovery in 2004 in the Big
Woods of Arkansas that prompted
the formation of a federal recovery
team. The purpose of the recovery
team is to prepare a comprehensive
recovery plan for the species, advise
stakeholders on conservation actions,
and assist with implementing
recovery actions. The recovery plan
is the document that summarizes
everything that is known about the
biology, ecology, and distribution of
the species. It also describes the
conditions necessary for removing
the bird from the endangered species
list, outlines recovery actions, and
identifies research needs. Much
about the species remains to be
discovered, including the current
population status and distribution.
Therefore, an effective search
strategy is another component of the
plan. The recovery plan is scheduled
to be completed by June 2007.
Habitat Management
and Conservation
Degradation and loss of habitat led to
the rapid decline of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker. Conservation and
management of adequate habitat will
be key to the bird’s recovery. Quality
habitat includes both upland and
lowland sites with very extensive,
continuous, multi-species, uneven
aged forest cover. Quality forest
habitat would include large trees and
a continuous supply of stressed and
dying trees.
Forest management practices on
federal and state lands are
undergoing review and revision to
enhance habitat for the species.
Federal cost-share programs, such as
the USDA Farm Service Agency’s
Conservation Reserve and
Enhancement Program and the
Natural Resource Conservation
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Service’s Wetlands Reserve
Program, are available for private
landowners in priority areas who
wish to provide habitat on their
property. Allowing dying and dead
trees to remain standing is
encouraged to provide foraging,
nesting and roosting habitat.
Federal Land
Acquisition
and the Duck
Stamp
As part of the
recovery
strategy, the
U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service
may also acquire
additional lands
from willing
sellers using funds from a number of
programs. One key acquisition
program is the Federal Migratory
Bird Hunting and Conservation
Stamp program, commonly known as
“Duck Stamp.” This $15 stamp is one
of the most successful conservation
programs in the country, investing
98% of funds generated into land
conservation. While all waterfowl
hunters age 16 and older are
Sara Barker and
Elliott Swarthout
of the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology
map out their
search for the bird,
Cornell Lab of
Ornithology/Ken
Rosenberg.
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required to purchase and carry Duck
Stamps, anyone can purchase one to
invest in conservation. Since its
inception in 1934, the sale of Federal
Duck Stamps has generated more
than $670 million, resulting in the
purchase or lease of over 5.2 million
acres of waterfowl habitat in the U.S.
In fact, more than 44,000 acres at
Cache River National Wildlife
Refuge were purchased using
Federal Duck Stamp funding.
Conserving Arkansas’ Big Woods
While the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Recovery Team will examine the
needs of the species throughout its
historic range, much of the initial
conservation and recovery focus will
be centered on the Big Woods of
Arkansas.
Long before the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker was rediscovered in the
Big Woods of Arkansas, conservation
agencies, non-profit organizations
and private landowners have worked
together to protect this ecosystem.
Partnerships among The Nature
Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission, Arkansas Natural
Heritage Commission, Bureau of
Land Management, U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, Potlatch Corporation,
legislators and private individuals led
Scott Simon (right),
The Nature
Conservancy’s
Arkansas State
Director, and
naturalist filmmaker
Timothy R.
Barksdale search for
Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers in the
Cache River
National Wildlife
Refuge, The Nature
Conservancy/Mark
Godfrey.
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to protection, acquisition, and
enhancement of hundreds of
thousands of acres over the last 20
years. At 550,000 acres, the Big
Woods of Arkansas is the largest
corridor of bottomland hardwood
forest remaining in the Mississippi
Delta north of the Atchafalaya River.
In 1989, Cache River and White
River National Wildlife Refuges and
all Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission Wildlife Management
Areas located in the lower White and
Cache River basins were recognized
by the 49 nations of the United
Nations’ Ramsar Convention as a
“Wetland of International
Importance.” These lands joined the
ranks of other internationally
renowned ecosystems worthy of
protection such as the Okefenokee
Swamp, the Florida Keys, and the
Chesapeake Bay. The Cache-Lower
White Rivers area is also recognized
as an “Important Bird Area” by the
National Audubon Society.
Two recent partnerships will help
conserve the Arkansas Big Woods for
future generations. The Big Woods
Conservation Partnership was
officially formed on April 7, 2004. The
partnership is working to restore or
conserve 200,000 additional acres of
forest habitat and rivers in the Big
Woods over the next 10 years.
Another group working to conserve
this area is the Corridor of Hope
Conservation Team. Through public
and private partnerships, the
Corridor of Hope Conservation Team
will develop and implement
conservation plans for the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker. The Team advises
the recovery team and helps with
outreach to local communities to
ensure a collaborative process.
Members of the team are civic
leaders, decision makers, elected
officials and other local stakeholders.
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White River National Wildlife Refuge
USFWS/Larry Richardson
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Historic Time Line for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
1820 Naturalist John James Audubon collects Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers along the Ohio, Arkansas and
Mississippi Rivers.
1870s Laws protecting much of the southern forests are
dropped and forests cut to meet demand for wood
products. Much remaining Ivory-billed
Woodpecker habitat is purchased and cleared for
agriculture and land settlement.
1906 President Theodore Roosevelt, on a hunting trip to
northeastern Louisiana, sees three ivory-bills.
1924 Arthur A. Allen, founder of the Cornell Laboratory
of Ornithology, discovers a pair in Florida. Even at
this early date, many ornithologists had already
considered the species to be extinct. Tragically, two
local taxidermists hear of Allen��s discovery and
shoot both birds — legally.
1935 A team from the Laboratory of Ornithology,
including Arthur A. Allen, Peter Paul Kellogg,
George Miksch Sutton, and James T. Tanner,
locates three woodpecker nests in the Singer Tract,
Louisiana. They produce the first motion pictures
and sound recordings ever obtained of the species.
1935 White River National Wildlife Refuge is
established on 113,000 acres in eastern Arkansas.
1937 James Tanner conducts field work in the
Southeastern United States over a three-year
period foccusing on the Singer Tract. He collects
information for his doctoral dissertation, which is
published by the National Audubon Society. He
estimates that only 22 ivory-bills exist in the
United States.
1941 National Audubon Society launches a campaign to
preserve the Singer Tract.
1944 National Audubon Society sends artist Don
Eckelberry to the Singer Tract to sketch and
document the last confirmed Ivory-billed
Woodpecker in the U.S.
1966 Texas birdwatchers Olga Hooks Lloyd and John
Dennis report seeing an Ivory-billed Woodpecker
in the Big Thicket area of east Texas.
1967 The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is added to the
endangered species list.
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Historic Time Line for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
1968 James Tanner spends two weeks searching in the
Big Thicket but finds no evidence of the birds.
1972 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins work on
the Cache River Drainage Project, which would
have channelized 232 miles of the river. Bayou
DeView, where the 2004-2005 Ivory-billed
Woodpecker sightings have been concentrated,
would have been drained. Rex Hancock, a
Stuttgart, Arkansas dentist, helps organize the
Citizens Committee to Save the Cache.
1978 After Hancock’s six-year effort, federal funding for
the Cache River Drainage Project ends.
1980 Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge is
established on the former Singer Tract — 40 years
too late to save the Ivory-billed Woodpecker here.
1986 The Cache River National Wildlife Refuge is
established when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service purchases 1,395 acres of land from The
Nature Conservancy with $646,000 in Federal
Duck Stamp funding. The refuge was established
by legislation supported by Senators Dale
Bumpers and David Pryor.
1989 The Cache River and White River National
Wildlife Refuges, and Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission WMAs located in the Cache River and
lower White River basins are designated as
“Wetlands of International Importance” by the
Ramsar Convention of the United Nations.
1992 A massive land exchange of 41,000 acres is
orchestrated by The Nature Conservancy, Senator
Bumpers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Bureau of Land Management and the Potlatch
Corporation (which owned the land) to create a
protected corridor connecting the Cache River
National Wildlife Refuge with the White River
National Wildlife Refuge. The land exchange,
valued at more than $20 million, is accomplished at
virtually no cost to the taxpayer.
1996 With support from The Nature Conservancy and
state agencies, Arkansas voters approve a 1/8th of
one percent sales tax to be used by the Arkansas
Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas
Natural Heritage Commission to purchase and
protect lands in the Arkansas Delta and elsewhere.
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Ivory-billed Woodpecker Websites:
http://www.fws.gov/ivorybill
Information on the recovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
http://www.agfc.com/ivorybilled
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory
Search updates and online sightings form
http://nature.org/ivorybill
The Nature Conservancy
http://www.ivorybill.org
The Big Woods Partnership
http://www.audubon.org
The National Audubon Society
Special thanks to Dr. Dan Scheiman, Audubon Arkansas.
Historic Time Line for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
1999 David Kulivan, a forestry student at Louisiana
State University, reports seeing a pair of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers in the Pearl River region of
Louisiana. The sighting leads to renewed efforts to
find the bird.
2002 An expedition is launched in the Pearl River
region, but no birds are found. Although the search
team does find large tree cavities and peeled bark
on trees, suggesting the possible presence of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers in the area, there are no
definite sightings.
2004 Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Arkansas, spots an
Ivory-billed Woodpecker while kayaking through
the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. When
confirmed by a subsequent sighting by Bobby
Harrison of Oakwood College and Tim Gallagher of
the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a search is
launched, resulting in numerous eyewitness
accounts as well as video evidence, filmed by David
Luneau, showing that the species still lives. The
Big Woods Conservation Partnership is formed.
2005 A federal endangered species recovery team is
formed. The search in Arkansas continues as a
collaborative effort by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The
Nature Conservancy, Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission, Audubon Arkansas, Arkansas
Natural Heritage Commission, and other partners.
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December 2005