Category

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

The ivory-billed woodpecker is presumed to be extinct, a victim of lumbering, hunting, and specimen-collecting in the pines and hardwoods of the South, but has remained a source of curiosity and hope.

Interviews

Narrator: Jim BlackburnTitle: Good God BirdDuration: 00:04:24Date: October 10, 2023The environmental attorney Jim Blackburn recalls his childhood in Louisiana's Cocodrie Swamp, where his uncles told him about once seeing the Good God Bird, probably the ivory-billed woodpecker. Mr. Blackburn laments that the bird is now likely gone, extinct before efforts could be made to save it and restore it. Narrator: Fred CollinsTitle: Elusive NomadDuration: 00:02:51Date: October 19, 2021Fred Collins is a wildlife biologist based in Houston, where he served as director of the Cypress Top Historic Park, the Kleb Woods Nature Center, and the John Paul Landing Environmental Education Center. In addition, for over 50 years, he has had a keen interest in the ivory-billed woodpecker. Here he describes the limits on our knowledge of the bird, much of which is based on observations of a single pair of birds, at one site, in a long-gone virgin forest, by a single reporter, James Tanner. Further, Tanner's accounts suggest that the bird had nomadic tendencies (even he had trouble locating them), which could explain the mystery and challenge of locating and studying them in the years since.Narrator: Richard "Dick" ConnerTitle: DrummingDuration: 00:01:45Date: October 8, 2021Dr. Dick Conner, a scientist emeritus in the Wildlife Habitat and Silviculture Laboratory, a program of the U.S. Forest Service's Southern Research Station in Nacogdoches, Texas, has long studied woodpeckers. Here he describes the persistent search for the last ivory-billed woodpeckers by ornithologists such as Martjan Lammertink, Jerry Jackson, and Lester Short, a pursuit that stretched from Arkansas to Cuba.Narrator: Cliff ShackelfordTitle: Logging and DammingDuration: 00:02:06Date: July 29, 2021Cliff Shackelford is based in Nacogdoches, and served for many years as the state ornithologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, focusing on protection of nongame birds. He is also an author of the guidebook, "Hummingbirds of Texas", and an active spokesperson for conservation on TV, radio and social media. He has closely studied the history of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the state, compiling an authoritative summary of records of the birds in the state. Here he talks about how the cutting and flooding of old-growth forests led to the likely extinction of the bird.Narrator: Cliff ShackelfordTitle: Double KnockDuration: 00:02:15Date: July 29, 2021Cliff Shackelford, the Texas Parks and Wildlife state ornithologist for many years, is based in Nacogdoches. He has long worked on educating the public, and protecting and restoring nongame birds. He has closely researched the ivory-billed woodpecker in the state, compiling a history of the bird in the state. Here he recalls how one respected scientist, John Dennis, made a 1967 audio tape of what he believed to be an ivory-billed in Texas, but others were never able to confirm the record of this elusive, likely extinct, bird.Narrator: Cliff ShackelfordTitle: Food in the WoodsDuration: 00:03:20Date: July 29, 2021Cliff Shackelford, the Texas Parks and Wildlife state ornithologist for many years, worked to educate and advocate for conservation of nongame birds. He has had a long interest in the ivory-billed woodpecker in the state. Here he explains how the woodpecker's decline in Texas was at least partly due to people killing it for food, in the days before wildlife was better protected with seasons and bag limits.Narrator: Cliff ShackelfordTitle: Baseball CardsDuration: 00:01:15Date: July 29, 2021Working out of an office in Nacogdoches, Cliff Shackelford served as the state ornithologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, focusing on protection of nongame birds. He is an active voice for conservation on TV, radio and social media, and has a particular interest in the history of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the state. Here he talks about how naturalists' competitive specimen-collecting ironically contributed to the likely extinction of the bird.