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The Search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Timeline of the Ivory-Bill Search
UPDATES: Jump to the most recent events in the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker!
The last universally accepted sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States was more than 60 years ago. Since the search began in March of 2004 there have been more than a dozen sightings of the ivory-bill by experts in the Big Woods of Arkansas’ Mississippi Delta.
- Feb. 11, 2004
- While kayaking through the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Arkansas, observes an ivory-billed woodpecker. Soon thereafter, Sparling places a trip report in an online newsletter for the Arkansas Canoe Club and later sends a report to Mary Scott, who owns the rights for birdingamerica.com, which includes a Web page on the ivory-billed woodpecker.
- Feb. 17, 2004
- Scott sends the report to Tim Gallagher, editor-in-chief of Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Living Bird magazine, who conducts a telephone interview with Sparling. Gallagher then contacts his colleague Bobby Harrison, a longtime ivory-bill searcher and an associate professor at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, who also interviews Sparling. When Gallagher and Harrison compare notes, the two agree Sparling could well have seen an ivory-billed woodpecker.
- Feb. 26, 2004
- Gallagher and Harrison, who for the previous two years had been interviewing people across the South who claimed to have seen ivory-bills, travel to Arkansas and canoe with Sparling through the bayou where he spotted the woodpecker.
“Since the first sighting, this has consumed us. We have dedicated our time and our dreams to protecting and conserving this area. These woods are my church… There is no bird like this in the world.”
John W. Fitzpatrick
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Feb. 27, 2004
- On the second day of their outing, as Sparling paddles ahead, a large black-and-white bird flies in front of Gallagher and Harrison, in what they both describe as a “close-up, unmistakable sighting” of an ivory-billed woodpecker. The two watch the bird move from tree to tree before it flies out of sight. This sighting was the first time since 1944 that two experienced observers had together positively identified an ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States.
- March 1, 2004
- Gallagher returns to Cornell and informs John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, of their sighting. Harrison informs officials at Oakwood College, and Sparling contacts John Simpson, a Nature Conservancy trustee, David Luneau, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who participated in the 2002 search in the Pearl River Wildlife Management area in Louisiana, and Scott Simon, director of The Nature Conservancy's Arkansas Chapter. The team works closely and quickly to organize and fund an extensive search.
- March, 2004
- The partnership launches an official search for the ivory-bill.
- April 5, 2004
- Jim Fitzpatrick, executive director for the Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center, sees an ivory-bill flying just above the treetops near the initial sighting area.
“The bird captured on this video can be nothing other than an ivory-billed woodpecker.”
John W. Fitzpatrick
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- April 10, 2004
- Melinda LeBranch of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology watches through her binoculars as an ivory-bill flies above the treetops at the same location where the April 5 sighting occurred.
- April 11, 2004
- Melanie Driscoll of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology watches through binoculars as an ivory-bill flies across a gap in the forest.
- April 25, 2004
- David Luneau, of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, captures on video what he and other experts now believe to be an ivory-billed woodpecker. After the video is analyzed, John Fitzpatrick states, “The bird captured on this video can be nothing other than an ivory-billed woodpecker.”
- June 9, 2004
- Harrison, one of the first three to spot the ivory-bill in the Arkansas search, reports seeing an ivory-bill flush from near the base of a bald-cypress about 15 meters in front of him.
- Nov. 9, 2004
- Marshall Iliff, a long-time birder who has extensive experience with Campephilus woodpeckers (the genus to which the ivory-bill belongs), hears double-knocks that he identifies as sounds made by an ivory-billed woodpecker.
- Dec. 2004 –
Jan. 2005
- An autonomous recording unit captures a number of distinct double knocks strikingly similar to those made by Campephilus woodpeckers. So far, however, researchers have not been able to rule out other potential sound sources.
- Feb. 14, 2005
- Casey Taylor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports hearing a series of double knocks and a short time later observes through her binoculars as an ivory-bill flies across an open area before disappearing into the forest.
- April 28, 2005
- The search team announces to the public its discovery that the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists.
The journal Science publishes a paper detailing the discovery of the ivory-bill on its Science Express web site.
- May 2005
- The Big Woods Conservation Partnership hosts a series of town hall meetings in Brinkley, Augusta and Stuttgart to inform local citizens about the rediscovery and to answer questions.
- June 2005
- The journal Science publishes the paper detailing the rediscovery of the ivory-bill as the publication’s June 2005 cover story. Following the June 2005 Science article, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology posts the analysis of the video to its website.
- June 17, 2005
- After reviewing evidence of the ivory-billed woodpecker the Bird Records Committee of the Arkansas Audubon Society votes to change the status of the bird in Arkansas from “extirpated” to “present.”
- Nov. 2005
- 30 full-time searchers once again descend on the Big Woods in hopes of locating an ivory-billed woodpecker roosting or nesting hole. More than 100 highly qualified volunteer searchers from across the country also participate in the 2005/06 search.
- March 16, 2006
- The journal Science publishes two new papers focused on the evidence of the existence of the ivory-bill in the Big Woods. The first paper, by bird guide author and illustrator David Sibley and three ornithologists, challenges the conclusion that the bird in David Luneau’s video is an ivory-bill. The response, authored by John Fitzpatrick, the head of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, along with four other lab experts, reaffirms the original analysis and the conclusion that the bird in the video is an ivory-bill.
- April 28, 2006
- During the winter and spring 2005/06 seasons, researchers cover 8 percent of the 550,000 acres that make up the Big Woods of Arkansas. (During the 2004/05 search, researchers also covered approximately 8 percent of the potential ivory-bill habitat.) During the 2005/06 search, additional evidence gathered includes sightings as well as dozens of new sound recordings that scientists believe may be those of the ivory-bill.
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