Article about the Ivory-billed woodpecker

[DownToThis]

This is an interesting article about a paper written in the journal Ecology and Evolution regarding the existence of the Ivory billed woodpecker. My personal thoughts of not having photographs of this woodpecker are similar to how I feel about Bigfoot, lochness, the chupacabra, etc... with so many cameras around these days some one is bound to have captured a picture.

The article in the new york times

A Vanished Bird Might Live On, or Not. The Video Is Grainy.

Scientists say they’ve compiled evidence showing that the ivory-billed woodpecker, a kind of Holy Grail for American birders, still exists.

www.nytimes.com

The original journal article

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.10017

 

[Woody Meristem]

Thanks for the links. It would be wonderful if the bird still exists, but the photos and videos are of such poor quality that, while they may be suggestive, thay certainly can't confirm the bird's existence. With all the high quality camera trap custom builds available it should be possible to get better photos than those in the paper. We can still but hope. However, if they still live I fear that birders and photographers would hound them until they were driven from any occupied habitat, courtship disrupted or feeding of young so prevented that the birds would be gone for good.

 

[GrandNagus50]

Ok, my two cents' worth. This is one of those stories that keeps repeating with the same kinds of claims, i.e., there are fuzzy, distant photos that "might be" Ivory-bills, people then go into the area and find nothing. Pileated woodpeckers clearly can exhibit significant flashes of white as they fly. Like everyone, I would be overjoyed if these birds still exist. Keep looking! But it sure seems unlikely at this late date. And yes, if by some remote chance they do find a small population of Ivory-bills that remains I would advocate the total exclusion of birders, non-contracted photographers, and press from the area as a management plan is devised.

 

[DougC]

All three of you have echoed my thoughts. Wish it were true but until I see photos or videos I don’t believe it.

 

[Anjin San]

Saw that and went and read the original study with photos and videos…and while it is true that a pileated has white under it's wings the trailing edges are black while an ivory billed has black in the middle and white both leading and trailing edges…and while some of the photos and videos are pretty far out and not very detailed…the presence of white trailing edges on the wings and white on the back seemed pretty definite. And the ivory billed is supposedly taller and thinner so who really nows. The problem is that the number may be very few and the territory they're in isn't exactly hospitable so going in and looking seems really hard. Yeah…nobody's seen one that was definitely identified since 1944…but then nobody had seen a coelacanth in 30 million years until the last 40 years or whatever it is…so I'm not going to say the study referenced is incorrect. Yes…pileated are pretty much everywhere…but even here in SW FL where they are pretty common…you see one maybe every 6th or 7th outing in the areas they like to hang out in.

I'm sure the game cameras they used are state of the art game cameras…but even the best of those are limited in lens focal length to get the wide angle of view…so a high quality distant game camera video just doesn't exist…but as I said go look at the original study video (referenced in the article)…and to me the white back and trailing edges definitely look to be there…and it is a 9 year study done by bird people so it isn't Bubba out there with his Brownie.

Same with Bigfoot like DownToThis said in the post start…one would think that if they are there in the Pac NW we would have found fur or a dead one or gotten a good photo…but then I've been in those rain forests a bunch and it's easy to suddenly see a deer or fox or bear that's not many yards away all of a sudden…the foliage is thick and the ground almost impossible to walk on easily…and it hasn't been that long since we found undiscovered tribes in South America so I'm not going to categorically deny they exist.

 

[Woody Meristem]

The absence of evidence certainly isn't conclusive evidence of absence BUT ... Until someone with good camera gear gets good photos or a freshly dead one turns up nobody will know for sure. This is one of those cases where the discussions and arguments may never end, the believers will never stop believing and the skeptics never will unless indisputable evidence turns up.

Just remember, camera traps built around DSLRs and using a telephoto lens can be constructed by many the people who have the necessary skill. As a user of camera traps, I don't think any commercially available off-the-shelf trail cameras are up to the job of photographing birds high in a tree at any distance. In any case, the major problem is finding a location where the target species would be likely to show up, but even that wouldn't be impossible.

 

[Abinoone]

This is an interesting article about a paper written in the journal Ecology and Evolution regarding the existence of the Ivory billed woodpecker. My personal thoughts of not having photographs of this woodpecker are similar to how I feel about Bigfoot, lochness, the chupacabra, etc... with so many cameras around these days some one is bound to have captured a picture.

The article in the new york times

A Vanished Bird Might Live On, or Not. The Video Is Grainy.

Scientists say they’ve compiled evidence showing that the ivory-billed woodpecker, a kind of Holy Grail for American birders, still exists.

www.nytimes.com

The original journal article

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.10017

Oh ye of little faith… the Ivory Billed Woodpecker definitely lives on, but is being hidden by the federal government In Area 51, along with Martians , the props used in the fake moon landing , and Elvis Nothing more than a government conspiracy to keep birders and photographers in the dark.

 

[DownToThis]

All ye of little faith… the Ivory Billed Woodpecker definitely lives on, but is being hidden by the federal government In Area 51, along with Martians , the props used in the fake moon landing , and Elvis Nothing more than a government conspiracy to keep birders and photographers in the dark.

I'm impressed with your multiple use of emojis! I actually hypothesized that it was waiting for the Z8 to make an appearance. And if it still doesn't show, then the nikon Z 200-600