re: $12,000 Reward for Information Regarding the Whereabouts of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker

I have seen Ivory-bills on two occasions. Both times they were in flight. There was no chance to photograph them.
You stated that one possibility was that I couldn't identify wildlife. I was just stating my qualifications for identifying birds.

No.

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There were 38 Whooping Cranes in 1941. Are they extinct?

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You know how I know they are not?

The same way that I know that Ivory-bills aren't extinct...that you have actually seen them?

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They...are...extinct

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What makes you so sure?

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What makes you so sure?

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A combination of size, sound, flight, time, MVP and effort to locate.

It's not IMPOSSIBLE that there are a few left, but it seems highly unlikely at this point.

And, people who really want to find one are a lot more likely to believe they've found evidence. That coupled with reports from people who don't know that pileated woodpeckers are very common and can be seen in about half of the US has these black-panther-like stories living on.

Even if they're out there, 95% of the people that think they've seen one in the last 20 years are still wrong.

I think the odds are very, very slim. But it's impossible to prove the extinction, and a few species that have been thought extinct have been re-discovered. They are in much wilder places than Louisiana, though.

Good luck. Hell, in a few years when I'm retired I may even join the hunt. It would be pretty awesome to find a nest site.

Arthur Allen 1937

AlxTgr, while I'm not keen on being called a liar, I do appreciate the discussion and getting your perspective...which is certainly shared by very many people.

In my opinion, the "Ivory-bill is extinct because nobody has photographed it since 1938" perspective is rooted in ignorance about the nature of the Ivory-bill and the habitat in which it is most likely to be encountered: thick, old growth, bottomland forests.

Arthur A. Allen led the Cornell expedition into the Singer Tract in 1935 that got the last universally accepted photos of American Ivory-bills. His quote linked above echoes what everyone else (George Lowery, Herbert Stoddard, A.T. Wayne) who wrote on the matter in the 20th century said about Ivory-bills: that they were incredibly difficult to find; and, that experts could go for several days in forests were they KNEW there were Ivory-bills and STILL not find them.

The amount of "effort" it takes to find Ivory-bills is much greater than that with most other birds. A search for Ivory-bills for less than a month in a particular location would not necessarily detect Ivory-bills that are present.

As for photography, to my knowledge, there has never been an indisputable photo taken of an Ivory-bill that did not involve finding an Ivory-bill nest first. I think that there are four reasons for this: (1) Ivory-bills are unquestionably quite rare; (2) they are not territorial; (3) they are nomadic in their feeding habits; and, (4) they are incredibly shy and wary. As to the last proposition, A.T. Wayne, one of the most prolific Ivory-bill collectors of the early 20th century, estimated that (absent finding a nest) you couldn't get closer than 200 yards to an Ivory-bill without it flying away.

Photographing Ivory-bills will be a tough job that requires tough people. That's why I am satisfied that, on this board, I am connecting with just the right kind of people who can get the job done.