Field Guide: Ivory-billed woodpecker

The bird that just won't die

Audubon’s painting of the ivory-billed woodpecker

Last fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced their intention to “delist” the ivory-billed woodpecker, pulling it from the official record of endangered species. That’s not because it had miraculously recovered, but because it was believed to be gone entirely—extinct.

Ivory-billed experts were furious.

“Absurd,” one said. Another declared himself “blindsided.”

Soon, a team of scientists announced that they had photographic proof of the ivory-billed woodpecker’s continued existence. Other ornithologists called this new evidence dubious.

The whole kerfuffle at least gave the ivory-billed woodpecker a brief reprieve: earlier this month, USFWS granted itself an extra six months to contemplate whether or not this bird exists.