The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is a woodpecker native to the Southern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and hunting have reduced populations so severely that the last universally accepted sighting in the United States was in 1944, and the last universally accepted sighting in Cuba was in 1987.
The ivory-bill was the largest woodpecker in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. Naturalist John James Audubon described it as the "Great chieftain of the woodpecker tribe". In adults, the bill is ivory in color, hence the species' common name, and the plumage is deep black and white, with a red crest in males.
The bird was commonly found in bottomland hardwood forests, including dense swampland, and in temperate coniferous forests. Its diet consists of large beetle larvae, particularly wood-boring Cerambycidae beetles, supplemented by vegetable matter, including southern magnolia, pecans, acorns, hickory nuts, wild grapes, and persimmons. To hunt beetle larvae, the bird wedges bark from dead trees using its bill, exposing the larvae tunnels; within its range, the ivory-bill faces no real competitor in hunting these larvae.
In the 21st century, reported sightings and other evidence that the species persists in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida have been published, but the validity of these reports is disputed, with many sources arguing that it is likely extinct. Habitat protection and restoration efforts have been initiated in areas where the species might persist.
In September 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed that the species be declared extinct. However, following public comment periods, the USFWS issued a news release stating it would continue to analyze and review information before making a final judgment. The status of the species has not been changed .
Taxonomy The ivory-billed woodpecker was first described as Picus maximus rostra albo (Latin for "the largest white-bill woodpecker") in English naturalist Mark Catesby's 1731 publication of Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas. Noting his report, Linnaeus later described it in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name of Picus principalis. The genus Campephilus was introduced by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840 with the ivory-billed woodpecker as the type species.
Ornithologists recognize two subspecies of this bird:
American ivory-billed woodpecker (C. p. principalis), native to the southeastern United States Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker (C. p. bairdii), native to Cuba, including Isla de la Juventud
The two look similar, with the Cuban bird somewhat smaller than the American ivory-bill. However, in 1874, ornithologists T. M. Brewer and Robert Ridgway suggested two feather characteristics that could distinguish the birds. They wrote that the Cuban bird had white dorsal strips extending to the bill, whereas the American bird did not. Additionally, the adult Cuban male's red crest feathers were longer than its black crest feathers, but were the same length in the American ivory-bill.
Some controversy exists over whether the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker is more appropriately recognized as a separate species. A 2006 study compared DNA samples taken from specimens of both ivory-billed woodpeckers and the imperial woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) of Mexico, a larger but otherwise very similar bird. The DNA analysis revealed that the three types of woodpeckers are genetically distinct. It also indicated that the American, Cuban, and imperial form a North American clade within Campephilus, diverging into different species in the Mid-Pleistocene. The study does not attempt to define a lineage linking the three birds, although it does imply that the Cuban bird is more closely related to the imperial. The American Ornithologists' Union Committee on Classification and Nomenclature has said it is not yet ready to list the American and Cuban birds as separate species. A member of the committee said that more testing is needed to support that change, but concluded, "These results will likely initiate an interesting debate on how we should classify these birds."
"Ivory-billed woodpecker" is the official name given to the species by the International Ornithologists' Union. Older common names included Log Cock, Log God, Lord God Bird, Indian Hen, Kent, Kate, (Wood Hen in Cajun French), and (Wood Cock in Seminole).Hoose (2004), page 92 In his 1942 novella, "The Bear", William Faulkner mentioned the "big woodpecker, called Lord-to-God by negroes", associating the large ivory-bill with the primeval southern environment of the old-growth forests or "Big Woods" in the Mississippi Delta. Some modern authors refer to the species as the "Holy Grail bird" or "Grail Bird" because of its extreme rarity and elusiveness to birders.
Description
The ivory-billed woodpecker is one of the largest woodpeckers in the world at roughly long and in wingspan. It is the largest woodpecker in its range. The closely related imperial woodpecker (C. imperialis) of western Mexico is the largest woodpecker in the world. The ivory-billed woodpecker has a total length of and, based on scant information, weighs approximately . Its wingspan is typically . Standard measurements obtained include a wing chord length of , a tail length of , a bill length of , and a tarsus length of . John James Audubon described it as the "Great chieftain of the woodpecker tribe".
The plumage of the ivory-billed woodpecker is predominated by a shiny deep black with blue or purple tint. There are white lines extending from the cheeks down the neck, meeting on the back. The ends of the inner primary feathers are white, as well as the whole of the outer secondary feathers. This creates extensive white on the trailing edge of both the upper- and underwing. The underwing also is white along its forward edge, resulting in a black line running along the middle of the underwing, expanding to more extensive black at the wingtip. Some birds have been recorded with more extensive amounts of white on the primary feathers. Ivory-bills have a prominent crest, although it is ragged in juveniles. The bird is somewhat sexually dimorphic; the crest is black along its forward edge, changing abruptly to red on the side and rear in males but solid black in females, as well as in juvenile males. When perched with the wings folded, birds of both sexes present a large patch of white on the lower back, roughly triangular in shape. Like all woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker has a strong, straight bill and a long, mobile, hard-tipped, barbed tongue. The bill is ivory in color in adults, while it is chalky white in juveniles. Among North American woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker is unique in having a bill whose tip is quite flattened laterally, shaped much like a beveled wood chisel. Its flight is strong and direct, and has been likened to that of a duck.
These characteristics distinguish ivory-bills from the smaller and darker-billed pileated woodpecker. The woodpecker normally is brownish-black, smoky, or slaty black. It also has a white neck stripe, but normally its back is black. Pileated woodpeckers have a red crest and a white chin. Usually, pileated woodpeckers have no white on the trailing edges of their wings and show only a small patch of white on each side of the body near the wing's edge when perched. However, aberrant individual pileated woodpeckers have been reported with white trailing edges on the wings, forming a white triangular patch on the lower back when perched.
The drum of the ivory-billed woodpecker is a single or double rap. Four fairly distinct calls are reported in the literature and two were recorded in 1935. The most common, a kent or hant, sounds like a toy trumpet often repeated in a series. When the bird is disturbed, the pitch of the kent note rises, and the note is repeated more frequently and is often doubled. A conversational call, also recorded, is given between individuals at the nest, and has been described as kent-kent-kent.
Habitat and diet
No attempts were made to comprehensively estimate the range of the ivory-billed woodpecker until after its range had already been severely reduced by deforestation and hunting. The first range map produced for the species was made by Edwin M. Hasbrouck in 1891.Jackson (2004), page 46 The second range map was made by James Tanner in 1942.Jackson (2004), page 47 Both authors reconstructed the original range of the species from historical records they considered reliable, in many cases from specimens with clear records of where they were obtained. The two authors produced broadly similar range estimates. They found that before deforestation and hunting began to shrink its range, the ivory-billed woodpecker had ranged from eastern Texas to North Carolina and from southern Illinois to Florida and Cuba, typically from the coast inland to where the elevation is approximately .
However, a few significant differences exist between Hasbrouck's and Tanner's reconstructions. Based on the reports of Wells Woodbridge Cooke from Kansas City and Fayette, Hasbrouck's range map extended up the Missouri River and approximately to Kansas City, which Tanner rejected as a possible accidental or unproven report.Tanner (1942), page 3 Also, Hasbrouck's range estimate extended up the Ohio River Valley to Franklin County, Indiana, based on a record from E. T. Cox, which Tanner likewise rejected as unproven or accidental. Tanner's range estimate extended farther up the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers, based on bird sightings reported by S. W. Woodhouse west of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and by Edwin James at the falls of the Canadian River.Tanner (1942), page 12 Hasbrouck did not mention these Woodhouse and James reports of the ivory-bill; they were possibly unknown to him.
Tanner's range map is generally accepted as the original range of the bird, but a number of records exist outside of both ranges that were either overlooked or rejected by Tanner or that surfaced after his analysis. Southwest of Tanner's range estimate, the species was reported in Texas along the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers, near New Braunfels, and all south-central Texas, around 1900 for at least one of these Texas reports. Farther along the Ohio River Valley, William Fleming reported shooting an ivory-billed woodpecker at Logan's Fort, Kentucky, in 1780. Ivory-billed woodpecker remains were found in middens in Scioto County, Ohio, and were inferred to come from a bird locally hunted. Similar inferences were drawn from remains found near Wheeling, West Virginia. There is also a report of a bird shot and eaten in Doddridge County, West Virginia, around 1900.Jackson (2004), page 264 Based on reports that did not include specimens, Hasbrouck set the northern limit of the range along the Atlantic Coast to around Fort Macon, North Carolina. However, this range was rejected as unproven by Tanner, who, instead, used the record by Alexander Wilson of a bird shot north of Wilmington, North Carolina, to set the northern limit of the range.