Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates) (4 Viewers)

[Snowy1]

Choupique...thanks for the helpful advice. I think everyone should read your post carefully. With the message about the Ivorybill being the last bird up in the morning, we should all benefit and be able to realize our goals. My guess is that birders will tend to spread out more than we think across the southeast in search of the IBW. Hopefully this will prevent serious numbers of birders interfering with hunters in any one area and allow everyone to get on with whatever is in their interest. I'll tell you one thing - If I ever came across a hunter, I'd get the heck out of there as fast as I could! I think most birders would do the same.

 

[Jesse Gilsdorf]

There are cyprus swamps in Tennessee just across Kentucky Lake from the LBL. The area has pine forest, but also has deciduous trees as well. There is a distinct possibility that it may have and IBW. This area is not very far from the Ohio River and has basically been connected by Kentucky Lake for the last 60 years or so since the Tennessee was dammed. Good luck. I may see you this weekend.

Jesse

 

[timeshadowed]

Those 2 characteristics of the IBWO nobody tells you about ...

It is a mattter of observation and how one describes what they have seen.

It is much like describing what one observes when one sees a robin on the lawn. The chances are that the robin was TILTIING its head to listen for worms, RUNNING a little bit, then STOPPING for another listen. Or one may describe the robin as pulling a worm from the ground.

In other words, if you see an IBWO, it's BEHAVIOR will be what sticks out at you.

TimeShadowed

 

[choupique1]

the video was not clear enough for one.. but was for another....

 

[Snowy1]

At first the video seemed very unclear to me and wouldn't suffice as scientific evidence however after viewing it a dozen times there really is no doubt that it's an IBW. The only possibility that could discount all 15+ sightings (most by experts) would be if someone had trapped a large Pileated and painted it white! Besides, the bird in the video displays another IBW caracteristic - a straight flight. The Pileated has an undulating flight and this has always been a significant difference between the 2 birds.

 

[fangsheath]

At first I didn't notice that the bird turns and flies off to the left of frame. That bird is really moving, and it is accomplishing it with very little wing stroke and virtually no undulation.

 

[choupique1]

note.. it did not glide down...... which is what a pileated does.. A LOT!

 

[choupique1]

if any bird could be painted.. to look like and ibwo..... and fool people......

hooded merganser.... the drake.. hoodie.. looks and flies a lot like a female IBWO.....


luckily.. the hoodie..unlike a woodie is not a highly sought after duck..... ie.. hunters don't seek them out.. in fact they rarely shoot them

 

[choupique1]

fang....

how do puddle ducks usually take off?





into the wind.....then change direction

btw the area of the 1971 LA sightings is getting a lot of attention right now.

 

[fangsheath]

I should be heading to Louisiana this winter, I haven't been in that parish since 1992. I always go back to my old stomping grounds with dread, expecting to see shopping malls. It is painful. Are hunters still regularly reporting ivory-bills in that area?

 

[humminbird]

The Pileated has an undulating flight and this has always been a significant difference between the 2 birds.

Snowy:
Documentation please! For every website or field guide that talks about the Pileated's "undulating" flight, I can find a website or fieldguide that discounts it. In fact, Sibley states on page 319 of his "National Audubon the Sibley Guide to the Birds" that the flight is "crowlike, level with smooth, rowing wingbeats at irregular intervals." I have seen many Pileated, and can not recall a significant undulation in any of their flights.
Mark
Bastrop, TX

 

[choupique1]

and crawfishermen

 

[fangsheath]

That's surprising, I have often noted pileateds making "woodpeckerish" flights, pumping their wings for a few seconds at a time with pauses in between. Of course when they are just moving from tree to tree you don't see it so distinctly. But there are some divergent accounts of ivory-bill flight, too, Audubon claimed that they undulate, and Tanner did see a young ivory-bill make an undulating flight. What I have not seen is a pileated doing what the bird on the video is doing, launching off a tree like a duck off the water and pumping along with little wing stroke.

 

[humminbird]

Yes, I have noted, as does Sibley, that the wingbeats are at irregular intervals, but I have not noted significant undulation in the flight. Certainly nothing like other woodpeckers or flickers.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

 

[Snowy1]

Basically I have never seen a Pileated fly the way the IBW did in the video.

 

[humminbird]

Basically I have never seen a Pileated fly the way the IBW did in the video.

I can not dispute that statement. Having seen the video as well, I have never seen a woodpecker fly like this did.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

 

[aubrey]

The Brinkley Argus' top headline for July 15th was "Arson destroyed Trestle; investigation continues." "Bridge to be Rebuilt by fall season to aid growth of ivory bill tourism."

* * *

"We will be directing the reconstuction of a bird viewing structure, made of perhaps steel or other substances that will be fire resistant, in the area to accommodate the birders that are expeced in the fall."

 

[aubrey]

I went to Wal-mart in Brinkley Sunday. On the way back there was a brick building with a sign on the side "Ivory-billed woodpecker gift shop coming soon." I couldn't help but think of the cartoon was was posted on this forum.

I drove out to a relative's farm a couple of miles from Cache River just to spend some time in the country (not close to where the Ivory-billed was seen.) Most of it is in farm land. I saw a tree on a ditch that had been dead a very long time. There were a lot of holes near the bottom and then up close to the top there were a lot more holes that were made by some kind of woodpecker.

There is one small area that is swamp land. I got out and walked around. I heard some loud noises coming from the swamp that I didn't recognize. I saw a large bird fly off in the swamp but I couldn't tell what it was. My eyesight is not that good.

We haven't had much rain so I could drive my car around the fields on the farm. I saw a big grey bird fly off out of a ditch that I didn't recognize. (I've got to get me a field guide if I'm going to take up bird watching.)

 

[aubrey]

The BBC is airing a program on the Ivory-bill and the Big Woods on July 4th. The Brinkley newspaper had a write up and picture about Grant Sonnex a couple of weeks ago.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20050704/20050704_2100_49700_4779_30

 

[Thayeri]

Snowy:
Documentation please! For every website or field guide that talks about the Pileated's "undulating" flight, I can find a website or fieldguide that discounts it. In fact, Sibley states on page 319 of his "National Audubon the Sibley Guide to the Birds" that the flight is "crowlike, level with smooth, rowing wingbeats at irregular intervals." I have seen many Pileated, and can not recall a significant undulation in any of their flights.
Mark
Bastrop, TX

I live in a place where Pileateds are fairly common, in fact they breed in the woods behind my house where they are year round residents, and I see them often.

I think you hear about both flight styles, because Pileateds fly both ways. When crossing the open space in the backyard, I usually see a straight flight that is very crow like indeed. In the woods I have noticed they will sometimes do big swoops or undulations as they fly, not as frequently as smaller woodpeckers.

That said, I have never seen another woodpecker fly the way the Ivory-billed does in that video. The difference to me, is like the difference between watching a crow and raven fly. Like a crow, a Pileated in straight flight beats rapidly, a workmanlike continuous rowing. A raven -- like the Ivory billed in the video, has a more graceful flight, not needing the rapid beat, and sometimes looking almost leisurely in comparison.