Encouraging signs but no woodpecker. (Biology).Birders searching a Louisiana forest this winter for the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker ivory-billed woodpecker, common name for the largest of the North American woodpeckers, Campephilus principalis. Once plentiful in Southern hardwood forests, since 1952 it was believed to be extinct or nearing extinction. heard a knock-knock and would dearly love to know who's there. The ivory-billed woodpecker, with its 31-inch wingspan and 20-inch length, hasn't been documented in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. since the 1940s, and observers haven't confirmed the existence of the Cuban subspecies subspecies, also called race, a genetically distinct geographical subunit of a species. See also classification. since the 1980s. A particularly vivid report of a supposed sighting in 1999 inspired Zeiss Sports Optics to send an international team to comb Louisiana's Pearl River Wildlife Management Area and adjacent woodlands. After a month-long search, the team's final report on Feb. 20 says it hadn't found conclusive proof that the species still exists, but it had hopeful signs. On Jan. 27 at 3:30 p.m., four members of the team heard a loud knocking, as if a huge woodpecker woodpecker, common name for members of the Picidae, a large family of climbing birds found in most parts of the world. Woodpeckers typically have sharp, chisellike bills for pecking holes in tree trunks, and long, barbed, extensible tongues with which they impale were drumming on a tree. Pileated woodpeckers up to 17 inches long abound in the area, but none of the team had ever heard one hammer out the pattern, which featured paired knocks. Cornell University ornithologists This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also . A-D
That patch of forest--the team will not disclose the location--looks like good woodpecker habitat, the searchers say. They found cavities in trees and bald spots in bark that might have been big enough to represent ivory-billed woodpecker work. Now, hope rests with the Cornell researchers, who have left 12 recording devices in the woods.--S.M. |
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