The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), suspected to be extinct, has been rediscovered in the ‘Big Woods’ region of eastern Arkansas, researchers wrote in the journal Science in an article hastily prepared for release.

“Visual encounters during 2004 and 2005, and analysis of a video clip from April 2004, confirm the existence of at least one male,” the authors write, including lead author John Fitzpatrick of the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology in New York.

Drumming sounds made by the birds have also been heard, the researchers said, according to ariticles moved by Reuters news service and the AP this morning.

“This is huge. Just huge,” Frank Gill, senior ornithologist at the Audubon Society, told Reuters. “It is kind of like finding Elvis.”

If true, this is an amazing find. I wrote about an organized search for the ivory-bill in Louisiana three years ago for the Dallas Morning News. At that time, researchers had little hope of finding a breeding couple alive.

To show how the New York Times has changed, this is the kind of story that the old Science Times would have been all over. Nothing this week. What’s up with that?

What’s worse? Not a damn thing in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazzette online.

The Arkansas Times, on the other hand, says researchers have known for some time and were planning a controlled release when a plan to protect the habitat was ready. But word leaked to National Public Radio.

Some conservationists are calling the find cause for celebration, according to this release by the Defenders of Wildlife.

“Today’s compelling evidence of ivory-billed woodpeckers in protected land near the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas is cause for celebration, and for reflection on what we’ve done right to protect the land that has been a hidden home to these mysterious birds for decades. Today, the importance of our National Wildlife Refuge System gained new meaning as our efforts to protect one of America’s wild places yielded a true miracle of nature.

“The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was one of the first creatures listed as endangered when the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 and we never gave up on it. The Act sounded the alarm about this beautiful bird’s plight and enabled us to adjust our research and habitat protection priorities in the hope that someday the bird would reappear. Now the protections provided by the Endangered Species Act and the system of laws that protect the place it calls home, take on even greater significance as we continue the hard work of bringing this magnificent bird back from the brink of extinction.”

Over at the Website for the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, there’s no posted news about the ivory-bill yet, but there are some interesting resources on birds, including the new version of The Birds of North American Online.

Update: The Cornell lab Web meister just posted a new page with a series of links about the find. Good stuff.

Also, The Times did have a story today, but it was not visible on the Web site this morning.

The Nature Conservancy also has a nice Web page with information about the land and the search.

Tags: Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

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