Science Express: Multiple Sightings of Long-Lost Woodpecker Reported

Observers in eastern Arkansas have reported at least eight independent sightings of a bird that appears to be an ivory-billed woodpecker, a species widely thought to be extinct. A video clip of one bird, though blurry, shows key features, including the size and markings, indicating that the bird is indeed an ivory-billed woodpecker, according to John W. Fitzpatrick of Cornell University and co-authors of a paper released today in the online version of Science.

One of the world's largest woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker is one of six North American bird species suspected or known to have become extinct since 1880. The bird was uncommon but widespread across lowland forests of the southeastern United States until logging decimated the forests between 1880 and the 1940s.

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