Ivory-bills in the 21st century

Mainstream media stories and some other resources about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker often cite 1944 as the year of the last widely accepted sighting of the species. That was the year artist Donald Eckelberry observed a female Ivory-bill in the Singer Tract in Louisiana and made sketches of the bird and an iconic painting showing her flying through a forest of bare trees and stumps.

But in fact, encounters with the species have occurred throughout the southeastern states every decade since then. Birders, hunters, ornithologists, and others have had sightings and heard the woodpecker’s signature kent calls and double-knocks, and some have taken photos and made audio and video recordings. This begs the question: Why aren’t post-World War II reports of Campephilus principalis taken more seriously?

In April 1999, David Kulivan, a graduate student in forestry at Louisiana State University, was on a turkey hunt in the 35,000-acre Pearl River Wildlife Management Area in Louisiana, sitting at the base of a