-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Ivory-billed Woodpecker Re discovered ? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lassa8
- Start date
Edward woodwood
Member
if Van Remsen's put his name to it i'm sure it's gen
anyway,
here is a very important site (the IUCN) with lots of accurate info on threatened species. http://www.redlist.org/
along with the BirdLife site it should provide all the known documented sightings etc about IBW (and Imperial)
anyway,
here is a very important site (the IUCN) with lots of accurate info on threatened species. http://www.redlist.org/
along with the BirdLife site it should provide all the known documented sightings etc about IBW (and Imperial)
GreatHornedOwl
Grumpy Armchair Birder
C'mon ... Cornell are a serious and respectable institute. 
Really, I don't believe there's any conspiracy theories going on there, except perhaps that much evidence of IBW in the past must have been kept secret for the greater public ... otherwise I can't for the life of me figure out how Elvis made it into the 21st century - IBW must have been more numerous than we thought during the past 60 years, that's the point I want to make.
Oh by the way and I heard my friend the Green woodpecker today, he's been around here for the last years... Not a Holy Grail bird, but just a good bird ! :bounce:
Really, I don't believe there's any conspiracy theories going on there, except perhaps that much evidence of IBW in the past must have been kept secret for the greater public ... otherwise I can't for the life of me figure out how Elvis made it into the 21st century - IBW must have been more numerous than we thought during the past 60 years, that's the point I want to make.
Oh by the way and I heard my friend the Green woodpecker today, he's been around here for the last years... Not a Holy Grail bird, but just a good bird ! :bounce:
Cuckoo-shrike
Well-known member
I can't quite see your argument here Ben. There's no comparison in terms of $$ (who's going to make big bucks from this?) or interest from joe public (as opposed to joe birder).Ben O said:
Aquila said:
There's no comparison in scale, I grant you that. Nor am I implying possible future public funding of wildlife projects will end up anywhere other than where it should be going, but it is serious $$ none the less.
As for joe public, every media outlet in the U.S and around the world is carrying this story, so it's hardly birder specific.
It's a cynical theory but it could be for the benefit of birdlife after all.
Ben
sparrowbirder
Well-known member
Why cant people just see this for what it is,an unbelievable once in a lifetime event,rather than turning it into a JFKesque conspiracy theory..the fact it has taken over 12 months for the news to come out,in order to collaberate all the evidence,should prove the point,,what a respected ornithological institution like Cornell would achieve by lying about something as important as this is beyond me.........
sparrowbirder
Well-known member
couldnt these have been monk parakeets,or one of the many other"foreign" imports resident in the southern states!!wheres the film got to might be worth a second look!!GreatHornedOwl said:
Larry Lade
Moderator
I believe that the fact that The Nature Conservancy, The US Fish and Wildlife, Cornell University, Louisiana State University, University of Arkansas, and others are, and have been, involved with this reporting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker lends much credibility to the viability of this species.
There are some people who still believe that the world is flat!
I caught a small segment on televison the other evening of a program that was pointing to various things concerning "man's walk on the moon". It was attempting to point out the whole "moon walk" thing never happened. The part of the program I saw maintained that the whole thing was contrived. They attempted to show that the "moon landing" and "moon walk" was actually filmed right here on earth.
So did men actually walk on the moon? Did these people actually see an Ivory-billed Woodpecker? I think so.
I suppose each indivual has to make up their own mind!
There are some people who still believe that the world is flat!
I caught a small segment on televison the other evening of a program that was pointing to various things concerning "man's walk on the moon". It was attempting to point out the whole "moon walk" thing never happened. The part of the program I saw maintained that the whole thing was contrived. They attempted to show that the "moon landing" and "moon walk" was actually filmed right here on earth.
So did men actually walk on the moon? Did these people actually see an Ivory-billed Woodpecker? I think so.
I suppose each indivual has to make up their own mind!
Curtis Croulet
Well-known member
The Apollo missions to the Moon are definitely OT, so I'll only say this: Evidence for authenticity of the Moon-landings is overwhelming and incontestible. "Evidence" that they were faked is badly flawed and based upon basic misunderstandings of science and engineering. Visit www.badastronomy.com and www.clavius.org for details. The badastronomy website has a discussion area where you can argue this to your heart's content. This is all I'm going to say about it here.
GreatHornedOwl
Grumpy Armchair Birder
sparrowbirder said:
... Noel Snyder (author of "glimpses of a vanished bird") couldn't locate it himself, BUT that color film was shown to a public of experts in 1970, and RT Peterson is known to have had a copy of it ... Perhaps the RTPI should be contacted, they may still have Peterson's copy.
The colour movie (colour = at least 1936 or 1937 ! Peterson said it was shot in the 1940ies) was shot in the Okefenokee swamp I believe and is generally agreed to show 3 green parrotlike birds, of which one, it is said, has clearly much yellow on his head (the other two could be juveniles who lacked the yellow).Peterson also corresponded with a man (a certain Mr. Kolosky) who saw several Carolina Parakeets in South Carolina as late as 1944 and he was obviously intrigued by the sighting, and did not rule out the possibility of Carolina parakeets (RTP had himself searched for the birds during the 30ies). According to Peterson at that date there would be about three species of escaped/introduced parrots breeding in the SE USA, "but none with the bright yellow head of the Carolina Parakeet".
... Well, you never know, do you ?
One thing - I hope, if they ever find a parakeet, that they don't call it Elvis.
WMcLean said:
One of the most respected and well-known birders in the Sacramento area, John Trochet, who does a regular bird census at the Nature Conservancy's Cosumnes River Preserve was viewer #9 of the IBW in Arkansas.
In a curious twist (I think there was a previous posting on this thread about the rarity of seeing mountain lions), yesterday John reported on the Central Valley Bird listserve what he had seen the day before: "The best sighting was, from the comfort of my vehicle, watching a puma cross the dirt road going east from the Equipment Pad. This was my second at the preserve in 10+ years there."
People who are familiar with an area because they are in it frequently and are practiced at observing and being unobtrusive are most likely to see the rare and elusive. Of that group, only those few who are knowlegeable and connected are likely to report the rare observation to "officials" who can make it known to the greater world and validate it scientifically, which seems to be very hard given the earlier search in the Pearl River area.
To add my 2 cents on why IBW hasn't been "officially" seen since last sighting many decades ago in the US and why seen now: with long history of resource degradation and recent history of some areas of resource improvement, huge territorial need and use area (500 square acres per breeding pair), lack of flocking behavior, generally acknowledged shyness, and near extinction level, why really would anyone have expected to spot IBW with any frequency? It seems to me the key is recent resource improvement in Eastern Arkansas... interesting that the sighting occurred in an area that has been let alone for quite awhile rather than in the more Southern swamps (Pearl River) where it might have been expected but that has undergone continued degradation.
Barbara
Last edited:
Curtis Croulet
Well-known member
The Ivory-bill has been seen since 1944, several times. It hasn't been confirmed until now. David Kulivan's sighting in 1999 looks pretty good now.
Ibw
I am doubting that the IBW can be maintained with anything other than habitat conservation, which appears to be considerably more than 500 acres per pair. Seems to me that any condor or parrot like program would be most improbable with such a specialized insectivore.
Interesting side note on the Cosumnes. Someone reported that the kitty sounded to be in heat.
I am doubting that the IBW can be maintained with anything other than habitat conservation, which appears to be considerably more than 500 acres per pair. Seems to me that any condor or parrot like program would be most improbable with such a specialized insectivore.
Interesting side note on the Cosumnes. Someone reported that the kitty sounded to be in heat.
sparrowbirder
Well-known member
Imagine being David Kulivan,seeing this bird whilst on his own, middle of nowhere,no camera,confident in his own mind of what he saw but not confirmed by any of the experts,its probably only pure luck that the arkansas bird was seen again,cant see any reason why anybody would make it up,and its not exactly a hard bird to ID if seen well is it,has he gained financially out of it,I doubt it,only photographs would probably have made him any money,although I suppose it has given him his 30 minutes of fame,and im sure it didnt do his exam grades any harmCurtis Croulet said:
Just out of interest, why do they need such a huge territory? I find it hard to imagine that any one pair could keep out competing pairs over that sort of area; surely the species would have to accept the overlapping of territories - to a certian extent at least? There must be some other factor that limited their numbers. For instance, is their food very specific and hard to come by?BarbaraM said:
