Chasing a Ghost, The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker 

I don't understand how you can get lost for days. Anybody who spends regular time in the big outdoors intuitively learns to keep bearings using the position of the sun. In the late afternoon it will be south west, it's enough indication to never go in circles. Unless you can't see the sun.

I wish this youtube comment was a movie.

@@goognamgoognw6637 I take it you've never seen Tate's Hell. It's unclear whether this story is the truth or a myth, but the legendary Mr. Tate was not an outdoorsman, he was a settler in what was still a very wild place in 1875, the year his trek through the wilderness supposedly took place. Even today, the vegetation in much of Tate's Hell is so dense - and was undoubtedly even more so back in the late 1800s when this supposedly happened - I suspect you wouldn't have been able to see the sun in places. And, of course, the sun's not always out! ☁️ ⛅ ⛈️ I'm an experienced outdoorswoman and professional wildlife biologist who's done wildlife fieldwork for roughly two decades, much of it in bottomland forest. I've been miles away from any road or the main river channel out in huge backswamps all by myself countless times. It's incredibly confusing to find your way around in them because it all looks alike. I wouldn't go very far off any road within Tate's Hell State Forest without a map, compass, and handheld GPS!

@Rod Kirt, I must correct some of what you say in your post, which I found quite intriguing as a professional wildlife biologist who spent four six-month field seasons during the second half of the 2000s in paid positions searching for these birds in three different states (AR, TX, and FL, specifically in the Choctawhatchee River basin in the western Panhandle). I also did some volunteer work for a colleague from Florida State University covering search blocks in the Apalachicola River bottomlands when I was between seasonal jobs before I actually moved here in 2009. First, I'd be surprised if you saw pines in a swamp. I suspect they were baldcypress. Pines do not like "wet feet" and tend to grow in the uplands. There's actually a pretty obvious transition zone at the edge of bottomland forest where you start seeing pines in drier conditions as you head into the uplands. Also, it's a much longer distance from the Jim Woodruff Dam to the mouth of what's actually the Apalachicola River (not Appalachia) than what you state as 7 miles. It's 107 miles! That's actually the length of the Apalachicola River, which is formed by the intersection of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers at the Florida- Georgia border where the Woodruff Dam was built - a very bad decision in terms of the health of the Apalachicola River and Apalachicola Bay. Finally, Tate's Hell is not up near Chattahoochee on 90. The southern end of Tate's Hell State Forest is down here on the coast roughly a 30-minute drive east of Apalachicola along U.S. 98 over near Carrabelle, and right across the road from Apalachicola Bay. It's on the opposite side of the river from what you described as a location much farther north. I hope you will find this information useful and interesting. I don't mean to be a know-it-all but I do know that what I've written here is factual. Thanks for listening!

@@bethwright8595 I am not sure what to tell you. I don't disagree but you've said nothing particular or anecdotal only general common sense.

Woody is not an ivory billed, he is based on the pileated.

Thank you! That intro in the beginning and I thought to myself, "are you using the same camera that filmed Bigfoot?

You're seeing Pileated Woodpeckers

@@kenna2090 I see Pialeted every time I go out. These are larger and flash way more white when flying.

@@kenna2090 they even sound different when they are hitting the tree. The regular red headed woodpeckers sound like a jack hammer but these seem to have a slower knock. Maybe they are extremely large Pileated. I'm no bird expert.

@@never2late454 Pileated Woodpeckers have slower drums compared to many other Woodpeckers! I'm actually a biology student at an university who's just a lil bit too bird-obsessed thanks to my Ornithology professor! I'm actually trying to start my senior thesis this year on local bird calls and behavior that are possibly affected by a plant nearby that had polluted our ecosystem (sorry for keeping things vague, I'm just trying not to doxx myself). And I have a lil' bird at home too! If you ever hear or see them again, you should record it on your phone and send it my way! I'd be happy to ID birds, their calls, or drumming- I can also even ask my professor about his opinion! I really want to believe that they could still be possibly out there since I just adore them and Carolina Parakeets. It's more less that 1. A lot of people tend to mix up Woodpeckers, especially the Pileated Woodpecker, for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I see videos every now and then on RU-vid where people say they have a recording of one and submit it on here for it to be the Pileated. It's hard and confusing sometimes to ID birds! Heck, I get mixed up on the Chickadees and hybrids here because they're all so similar! 2. If all the commenters saying they regularly/has recently seen them in the past few years to be true, then by now bird watchers/ornithologist/other field researchers would have seen them by now. Edit: I just fixed a spelling error

@@kenna2090 Unfortunately when I had seen them they were in flight traveling across the river from one side to the other and moving rather fast. I've yet to ever seen one on a tree with the exception of the red head's. The last time I spotted one was a couple years back maybe 3 in an area called Indian village on the Calcasieu river. That area also has a large population of regular woodpecker's. The area along that section is nothing but very old and large cypress trees and seems to attract lots of woodpecker's. There's so much bottom land and swamp around that area and along the Calcasieu that makes it hard to traverse. It can only be accessed by a small boat and mine is too large to really get inside the swamp. You can view that area on Google maps BTW. Good luck in your studies, I wish you the best

Thx for the spoiler! 😭

They're still around. I've seen them here in Lodi N.Y.

They were killed for their ivory.

​@@hillbillyfromtheswamp6223 lol. Ok. Proof?

@@hillbillyfromtheswamp6223they only lived in the south…

Everybody's talking about seeing, but you'd hear ir first for weeks , month and years before you'd ever see one. They're loud and prehistoric sounding. Thanks to the great Pileated woodpecker I know this.

There's a decent possibility that the Cuban subspecies has survived, as it has much larger swaths of undisturbed habitat than its american counterpart. It was last seen in 1980s, but there are many parts of the cuban mountains that have not bee properly surveyed, and they were known to have migrated deeper into the mountains before they went missing.

@@Glassandcandy oh wow...God willing, my friend! Thank you for the hope 🤞🙏

I got a chance to see one twice once in flight and another time from a long off distance. two years after there was a spotting of the bird in Vancouver.

You're a critter too.

thanks

Humans can be scums

Pileated Woodpeckers are not a federally listed species, and I'm not aware of them being listed in any state either. They are still relatively common as far as I know. You don't see them a lot because they're not as plentiful as smaller woodpeckers, based on the simple fact that larger animals have larger territories, and thus there are going to be fewer of them in a given area. Lower population density would be a more scientific way of putting it. And I totally disagree that larger animals are in more danger of extinction. What makes you think that? The proposed list of species to be declared extinct itself contradicts that supposition. I do agree that larger species require larger territories be more affected by development, but that's not the only factor involved in whether a given species is doing well or not.

@@bethwright8595 Beth, Pileated Woodpeckers ARE SO a Federally listed species. They are listed in CFR Part 10 of the Migratory Bird Treaty ACT of 1918. Most states if not all afford protections for Pileated Woodpeckers. Daniel

Wanted dead or alive to prove its existence?

Iij

That is very true. I believe it is just in their nature to be very elusive to human beings due to years of logging out old growth timber (the best trees) as well as hunting them out. Ivory Bills seem to despise the sight of humans, and can you blame them? Daniel

Are you sure it wasn’t pilleated woodpeckers? They look very similar!

Great comment, now I understand.

Say that to the 2004 footage…

You are just seeing piliated. But you aren't alone.

I am basing my observations on sound, not sight. Although they may look similar, Ivory's have a very unique sound that, in my opinion, cannot be confused with any other bird. RU-vid "Ivory-billed call" and then "pileated call". If you have trouble distinguishing the two calls, I respectfully recommend you schedule an appointment with an audiologist.

@@jonathanyoung9369 I recommend you see an optometrist. Those birds are long dead.

Wishing a bird extinct and a bird actually being extinct are two separate issues. I cannot help you push your agenda for climate change simply by agreeing with you just to agree. I have the right to disagree with your opinion that I need to see an eye doctor (which actually doesn't make sense because 1) I am already visually impaired; and 2) I already explained that I identify animals by sound, not sight). I do have a keen sense of hearing though.

@@jonathanyoung9369 can you manage to record them calling and post it online to a site like inaturalist? I want to believe too but the lack of solid evidence is a huge issue. If you're claims are true then you have to make an effort to gather some tangible evidence, it's really important.

maybe who knows, as someone who lives in Texas, I hope there is some down here somewhere but likely not.

Missouri? Yes, for sure it was a Pileated. Daniel

Well said. Exactly. Daniel

I totally agree with you, @Aaron Rider, but USFWS does not have sufficient funding to keep chasing a ghost when there are hundreds of other species in danger of extinction, for which there are practical actions to be taken which will protect these creatures and plants, as well as critical habitat for them. We should absolutely promote conservation of bottomland forest habitat, but unfortunately I don't think that can be the role of the federal government at this point. Perhaps the forthcoming declaration of extinction will make people sit up and engage in further efforts to acquire conservation land in bottomland forest habitats. I daresay there may be opportunities for that with increasing flooding of agricultural communities farming the rich soil in river bottoms attributable to stronger storms and sea level rise resulting from climate change. I just now had a flash of inspiration in this regard!💡 Might a USDA program, potentially in collaboration with FEMA, be designed and funded to buy out these farmers and convert the land to conservation property? Meanwhile, the best thing we can do is support NGOs like The Nature Conservancy, whose Arkansas chapter raised enough money in the wake of Ivory-billed Woodpecker sightings in the Cache River basin back in the mid-2000s to add 70,000 acres to Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, a newer refuge established in the '80s for which there was a whole lot of unacquired land within the authorized refuge boundary. TNC has a lot of wealthy donors and they actively promoted this effort. I was working for Cornell Lab of Ornithology, supported by Audubon Arkansas, back then and multiple times was asked to take wealthy donors for canoe trips out in the swamp. TNC was totally on top of this and I give them a lot of credit for what they did back then! That's exactly the type of work we need at this point, in my opinion.

@@bethwright8595 Removing Federal funding takes away from possible search and research of Ivory-bills in Cuba and possible search and research of Imperials in Mexico by American Biologists.

that 2004 one was fake

and a male calico cat.

And a Carolina parakeet

and a Bachman's Warbler and a Rocky Mountain Locust.

@@sharksport01 In your dreams!

@@nottawa86 🐱

Exactly. I don't understand why people don't realize this. A species can't exist for decades with a population of just a few. If there were enough birds to sustain the population, people would be documenting them. The Ivory-billed woodpecker is EXTINCT.

this day and age most people wouldnt know what they were looking at if they looked up from their phones long enough to spot one

Debbie downer ruining the party for everyone! Y yu do tis?

@@michaelg8642 Don't underestimate the number of birders out there! ;-)

The places where they would be located are very hard to reach and thus footage is tough to be clear when you have a bird flying in a large, dense forest/swamp.

Hey! Any updates? You can't just leave us hangin' out here.

I lived all over Alabama for 22 years, southern Louisiana for 1 year, and worked for USFWS for 30 years. You did not see an Ivory Bill in Alabama. Sorry to bust your bubble, but it isn't possible in Alabama. Daniel

@@DanielHHurt Yes, I did see an ivory-billed woodpecker because I recognized its call from the audio and saw where it was. Enterprise, Alabama is not too far from the Choctawhatchee River.

Depending where you live, a suet feeder will bring the woodpeckers. It needs to be where squirrels can’t access cus they’ll wipe out a suet cake in a day or two. The pillated woodpecker is frequently spotted here (northeast Ohio). If you listen to a recording of their sounds, there is nothing else like it and I often hear them and go to the window. It’s as if they are announcing themselves. Also, usually see two at a time. The mating pair stays together.

Not the same size. Ivory billed is bigger

It's extinct. they later re-assessed what they saw and decided that was a pileated. Further search turned nothing.

When.

i think its extinct. I hope not but I think it is

@@Jimmyandtony So the other day i was in the deep woods among tall mixed pine/hardwood trees and river swamp area. And i heard again that bird call which sounds funny, high up in the trees and reverberating among the cathedral like many trees. It's a beautiful sound and i thought it cannot be... I followed a trail in that direction, i had no hope to see anything. But then minutes later it repeated and i knew immediately that the sound was in visual distance range. My eyes scanned high up the trunks of many tall trees making a cathedral like sound above a canyon forest floor that was dug by one of the river arms now dry. And there it was hopping around a trunk. I first saw the red 'huppe' on the head. My breathing stopped as i knew the next second i will see if if it is a Pileated or an Ivory woodpecker. And my eyes saw., that it was a Pileated woodpecker male, not an Ivory. It of course knew of my presence. Seconds later it flew maybe only 20 meters to another tree probably wary of my presence and i lost visual track of it. Everything was perfect in this sighting and all the conditions were present for it to be an Ivory, though it wasn't. I was still very happy because it's my first large woodpecker sighting.

@@goognamgoognw6637its cool you saw a pileated. I want to believe that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker is still alive but they are so similar to pileated woodpeckers that its hard to tell from blurry footage. There is lots of swampy marsh habitat with tall cedar trees that would be perfect for an Ivory Billed Woodpecker but one Ivory Billed Woodpecker's habitat is so expansive that, even if it was there, it would not be seen. I want to believe that it's there because it's such an amazing creature but I don't think it's here

Well, if you've seen one you've seen them all. Would be wise. Why make a fool of your self? Daniel

Ebird, Inaturalist, social media are all places that if you post an IBW you WILL get a response.

You vote Democrat too, when we say we seen ivorybill, you start to talk about pileated. 😁

While many people claim to have seen the Ivory Billed Woodpecker since that initial sighting in 2005, no proof is available documenting their existence today. But there are still organized efforts to keep looking and you can find out more about them here: www.birds.cornell.edu/home/the-search-for-the-ivory-billed-woodpecker/

@Ryo Amora: Where were you when this happened? There are no indisputably documented sightings from that period, the last being in the 1940s. I'd definitely be interested to know where you saw what you saw, and how you know it was not another species of large woodpecker like a Pileated Woodpecker. But maybe you were pulling people's chain because you said LOL at the end?

In Mexico maybe?

@@DanielHHurt Hey “Daniel idiot” , the Imperial Woodpecker and the Ivory Billed Woodpecker are NOT THE SAME THING.

it's his closest relative, and we should focus on fighting banks and the existing financial system that assumes limitless currency printing which translates to limitless destruction of nature for ressources, forest and Pileated woodpecker habitat.

@@goognamgoognw6637 Incorrect. The closest relative to the ivory-billed woodpecker is the pale-backed woodpecker.

@@mr.d00m37 What is the scientific name for your Pale-backed woodpecker? The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds (Torres, 1987) does on include a woodpecker with that name either as a common name sanctioned by the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union or as an alternative "other name" applied historically or locally. The Ivory-billed (Campephilus principalis) is in the genus Campephilus, which Wikipedia says contains 11 species, none of which have a common name of "pale-backed." Perhaps you are referring to the Cream-backed woodpecker (Campephilus leucopogon) which is native to South America? The Wikipedia page on the Ivory-billed states that the Ivory-billed, the Cuban ivory-billed (C. p. bairdii) and the imperial woodpecker (C. imperialis, extinct but was endemic to Mexico) form a North American clade within Campephilus. Or perhaps you are referring to the Pale-BILLED woodpecker [emphasis added], C. guatemalensis, that has a range from Northern Mexico to Panama (Wikipedia)

No they weren’t. Go get a brain.

@@supermanprime9596 I am assuming he is making a joke. The pileated is based on Woody Woodpecker. What's interesting about the pileated is that there is a native american legend about the pileated being a trickster. Which is more than likely happening over the past 15 or so years - the pileated is tricking everyone who sees it from a distance into seeing an ivory bill.

Trick or Treat?

probably a pileated

big if true

Well you know there might be like a tiny bit left because they were hunted down by humans a and humans might now know that the didn’t kill them alk

Wow! Close to where I live.

That only happened one time about the politician- George Washington

Exactly, It is Criminal, and Greedy. Take it from an old Game Warden with 30 years experience. Daniel

pileated woodpecker

@@danielbarber4572 oh yea, most definitely it was probably those

I knew where a mating pair was in Arcadia Fl. In 1992 and called the Audubon Society with the findings. Incredible feeling to see a pair come into the yard and sit and watch them. Once in a lifetime!!

@@audradye349 You saw the Sasquatch....? 🤔

Good Point. Never underestimate the influence and deception of a Duck Hunter. Daniel

@@DanielHHurt any pissed off hunter. However you are correct about the influence part. To duck hunt the delta especially private land you better have deep pockets or be in a position of influence

Yup. Or have family that farms there.

Nope. It was the wholesale clear cutting of the virgin old growth swamp forest in the deep south.

That was/is the Red Headed Woodpecker. Daniel

If you're seeing this bird, please contact your local ornithologist department ! Usually in a university!

if it is white underneath, its a pileated.

Can you upload the video?

Please post the video! 🙏🏼

I also saw a unicorn in my driveway. Took a video of it too. Seriously though, please post the video if you're being sincere. This is an important matter at hand.

@@thechickenwizard8172 That's a good one. Daniel

@@thechickenwizard8172 l like that about the unicorn, most people are just full of it. If ya got video evidence, trot it on out and become famous! The birds location isn't that important because of how people are.

Sorry their Pileated woodpeckers

Who is he?

@@crimsonblitz1245 comedian that told a story about this bird and how he accidentally killed one as a kid

@@rajgill7576 oh, that’s sad

Maybe post it then instead of possibly lying and saying all this for attention?

Wait really?

If you had actually seen one then you should have recorded it. Because it has now been officially declared extinct by the government.

@@Theoldman27 there are dozens of animals once thought to be extinct but aren’t. The government is stupid.

@@Theoldman27 they are just trying to pull on people heart strings so they can blame it on climate change

@@nunyabusiness1003 It's literally been 77 years since a documented sighting. The government may be stupid but this woodpecker is long gone. It should have be declared extinct years ago.

@@Theoldman27 I just told you I’ve seen one myself while fishing. There is also a video on RU-vid of one spotted in the swamp not too long ago. You have to remember “documented” means government official or scientist. That doesn’t mean anything. How often and how much time do you think they spend looking for it? Don’t believe everything you read. Especially when it’s from a government bureaucrat.

Tagging and handling the nestlings does not discourage the mother from taking care of them, and these birds are being monitored and managed very closely. The purpose of that particular area is to help those birds reproduce, which is why they're taking a more active role.