Is the ivory-billed woodpecker making a comeback from extinction?
With the last confirmed sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker in the 1940s this huge woodpecker has long been considered extinct. But the Ivory-billed may be a Lazarus species a species that is rediscovered alive after being considered extinct for some time. A group of ornithologists from Auburn University in Alabama and the University of Windsor in Ontario spent four months in the cypress swamps of the Choctawhatchee River basin in northwest Florida this year and these researchers say they have seen and heard the rare bird once believed to be extinct. “On 14 occasions different team members have seen the bird. We heard that double knock, it’s a sound the ivory-bill makes that no other bird makes, but we didn’t get a clear video of the bird,” said Geoffrey Hill, Auburn ornithologist and team leader. Hill also said team members heard the bird’s unique call 41 times. Some of the sounds were recorded. Other evidence includes tell-tale foraging signs and appropriately sized tree nest cavi
