After the bird watching community failed for decades to document a magnificent bird that resides in an easily accessible region, many bird watchers reacted with hostility toward those who spent long periods of time in the field and managed to find them. Other than how it could impact conservation, it doesn't matter to me what anyone thinks. My data have been published, and the truth will eventually prevail, as it always does in science.
In case anyone here is interested in the truth, I recently discovered something that had been overlooked in a video that was obtained during an encounter with two Ivory-billed Woodpeckers at a site where an ornithologist had recently had a sighting. During one of the events in that video (which runs for more than 20 minutes), both birds are visible at the same time. Within a few seconds of each other, they take off with deep and rapid flaps and wing noises that are audible from a distance. Those flights are consistent with the following account by Tanner:
"The wing-feathers of Ivory-bills are stiff and hard, thus making their flight noisy. In the initial flight, when the wings are beaten particularly hard, they make quite a loud, wooden, fluttering sound, so much so that I often nicknamed the birds 'wooden-wings'; it is the loudest wing-sound I have ever heard from any bird of that size excepting the grouse."
These flights, which can only be attributed to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, may be viewed in a movie (187 MB) that may be downloaded here. The wingbeats during one of the flights are compared with the wingbeats of an Imperial Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpeckers here. Prior to those flights, the other bird came in for a landing that is consistent with an account by Eckleberry of a landing with "one magnificent upward swoop." The footage of this landing may be downloaded here. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is the only plausible explanation for this landing and the field marks, which are discussed here.
Two other conclusive videos were obtained in Louisiana. For one of them, the attached size comparison is an improvement over a comparison that has already been published. The large woodpecker in the video is clearly larger than a Pileated Woodpecker. There is no way to explain this away. It was perched on a tree with two forks that facilitated the scaling of the reference photo relative to images from the video. The size alone is conclusive, but the woodpecker in that video has several characteristics and behaviors that are consistent with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker but not the Pileated Woodpecker.
When will people wake up and recognize the truth? Hopefully, this will happen before it is too late to save the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from extinction.
Mike Collins
Alexandria, Virginia
fishcrow.com
In case anyone here is interested in the truth, I recently discovered something that had been overlooked in a video that was obtained during an encounter with two Ivory-billed Woodpeckers at a site where an ornithologist had recently had a sighting. During one of the events in that video (which runs for more than 20 minutes), both birds are visible at the same time. Within a few seconds of each other, they take off with deep and rapid flaps and wing noises that are audible from a distance. Those flights are consistent with the following account by Tanner:
"The wing-feathers of Ivory-bills are stiff and hard, thus making their flight noisy. In the initial flight, when the wings are beaten particularly hard, they make quite a loud, wooden, fluttering sound, so much so that I often nicknamed the birds 'wooden-wings'; it is the loudest wing-sound I have ever heard from any bird of that size excepting the grouse."
These flights, which can only be attributed to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, may be viewed in a movie (187 MB) that may be downloaded here. The wingbeats during one of the flights are compared with the wingbeats of an Imperial Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpeckers here. Prior to those flights, the other bird came in for a landing that is consistent with an account by Eckleberry of a landing with "one magnificent upward swoop." The footage of this landing may be downloaded here. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is the only plausible explanation for this landing and the field marks, which are discussed here.
Two other conclusive videos were obtained in Louisiana. For one of them, the attached size comparison is an improvement over a comparison that has already been published. The large woodpecker in the video is clearly larger than a Pileated Woodpecker. There is no way to explain this away. It was perched on a tree with two forks that facilitated the scaling of the reference photo relative to images from the video. The size alone is conclusive, but the woodpecker in that video has several characteristics and behaviors that are consistent with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker but not the Pileated Woodpecker.
When will people wake up and recognize the truth? Hopefully, this will happen before it is too late to save the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from extinction.
Mike Collins
Alexandria, Virginia
fishcrow.com
