Researchers from the National Aviary, with major funding from the Avian Conservation Endowment (ACE) established by Cordelia Scaife May, have succeeded in preventing the “extinction” classification of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Their exhaustive search, which provided compelling clues about the bird’s continued existence, convinced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to postpone delisting the iconic species.
Categorizing a species as extinct eliminates crucial protections and essentially surrenders hope.
In October, government officials declared the removal of 21 species from the Endangered Species Act.
But thanks to the outstanding efforts of the National Aviary team and the backing of the ACE Endowment and Colcom Foundation spanning over more than a decade, the ivory-bill retains its endangered status, at least for the time being. The impressive collection of evidence – from audio recordings of distinctive calls to video of identifying wing patterns – presented by the team points to the distinct possibility that America’s most mythologized bird is still with us.
The ivory-billed woodpecker is one of America’s most legendary birds. With its 30-inch wingspan, brilliant white plumage, and impressive size, accounts of sightings inspired reverence among early naturalists.
Dubbed the “Lord God Bird” for the exclamations of awe it evoked, the ivory-bill was a magnificent resident of southern swamps and forests.
But, excessive hunting and habitat loss in the late 19th and early 20th centuries devastated the species. The last accepted sighting occurred in Louisiana’s Tensas River basin in 1944. Most experts declared the ivory-bill extinct by the 1950s. Its majestic form faded into memory.
Or did it?
In 2004, the birding world erupted when a video from an Arkansas bayou documented an apparent ivory-bill. This sparked a frenzy of searching and a flurry of follow-up sightings. The ivory-bill seemed to have cheated extinction after all.
Mellon heiress Cordelia Scaife May, established the $3 million Avian Conservation Endowment with the National Aviary in 2005 which has provided significant funding for ivory-bill detection efforts
Cordelia Scaife May was known for her deep love for birds and nature, which drove her philanthropy during her life and still resonates today. As an avid birdwatcher, Cordelia Scaife May felt deeply connected to avian life and was compelled to support their conservation.
In homage to the birds she loved, Cordelia Scaife May established the Avian Conservation Endowment, allowing the Aviary to launch Project Principalis. For over a decade, Project Principalis has carried out exhaustive field studies in Louisiana, amassing a mountain of evidence suggesting ivory-bills inhabit the bayous.
Their peer-reviewed paper entitled “Multiple lines of evidence suggest the persistence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in Louisiana,” published in Ecology and Evolution, compiles audio recordings, trail camera images, and drone videos indicating the presence of the giant woodpecker. It builds on their earlier preprint with enhanced analyses. Although inconclusive, the research fuels optimism and warrants further searches where ivory-bills may defy the odds in forgotten backwaters.
Project Principalis boasts years of visual observations by Steven Latta, the Aviary’s director of conservation and field research, and Mark Michaels, an independent ivorybill researcher.
The data includes 70,000 hours of recordings capturing the bird’s distinctive sounds, nearly 473,000 hours of potential movement captured by trail cameras, and an astounding 1,089 hours of aerial footage from drone flights covering vast areas. The researchers also monitored foraging trees and obtained video of cavities consistent with ivory-bill nests.
This mountain of data, according to Latta, reveals “multiple lines of evidence” and repeated sightings of multiple birds, painting a compelling picture that the woodpecker might still be alive. Despite its official status as critically endangered, Latta believes this compilation of data offers a strong case for the ivory-billed woodpecker’s continued existence.
The quantity and diversity of evidence amount to a compelling case for the species’ continued survival.
“Our visual observations, audio files, trail camera photographs, and drone videos, suggest the intermittent but repeated presence of multiple individual birds with field marks and behaviors consistent with those of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers,” the study states.
As the ivory-billed woodpecker narrowly escaped losing its protected status for now, Cordelia Scaife May’s Avian Conservation Endowment may prove the one thing that may save it from vanishing altogether. The Endowment’s support facilitated the rigorous effort needed to demonstrate that the Lord God Bird still graces remote Southern swamps, avoiding the tragic “extinction” label that often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Although Colcom Foundation founder Cordelia Scaife May passed away in 2005, one year after this elusive woodpecker was rediscovered, her legacy and love for birds live on in the work of Colcom Foundation.
Thanks to her dedication and commitment to protecting avian wildlife, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker will continue to be protected and, hopefully, have a chance to inspire awe again.
