Science in the News: Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

A presumably extinct bird, the ivory-billed woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, was reportedly rediscovered in 2004. This case features several specimens to illustrate the differences between the ivory-billed woodpecker and the pileated woodpecker. It also explains how the cutting of the woodpecker's habitat—hardwood bottomlands of the southeastern U.S.— may have brought the species to the brink of extinction, and how conservation of this habitat may lead to its resurgence. The last confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker was in 1944, and clear images are still needed to confirm the recent sightings.