Rediscovered bird keeps a low profile
DIXIE, Ark. – The Arkansas swamp that’s home to the recently rediscovered ivory-billed woodpecker is a forbidding place, and visitors searching for birds above are wise to scan for snakes below.
Some officials believe the remoteness and dangers of the area where the bird is believed to live are enough to deter all but the most determined bird-watchers, but others aren’t so sure.
“This is just a special thing. Thousands of people will want to come right here,” said Sam Hamilton, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast region. “This is the world’s greatest woodpecker.”
The strikingly beautiful bird – sometimes called the white-back, pearly bill, poule de bois and even Lord God bird – was thought to have been extinct for decades when a kayaker found one in February 2004. Cornell University and a number of government agencies announced the discovery Thursday, and researchers took a handful of outsiders Friday to the site of the find.
The rare bird – a little larger than a crow, with a wing span of about 19 inches – can easily fly about undisturbed in swamps like the 800-acre tract where researchers focused their search. It’s hard for humans to even reach it, and once they do, it’s hard to focus on bird-watching.
One team that recently searched for the bird counted 17 poisonous cottonmouth snakes in 20 minutes, said Doug Zollner, an ecologist on the research project.
Stopping his motorized canoe on the river to describe the search efforts, Dennis Widner, a manager of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, said he wasn’t worried about an influx of bird-watchers possibly disturbing the bird because the region is so remote.
“It’s dangerous work to be out in these swamps,” Widner said.
The remoteness could be one reason Gene Sparling became the first person known to have seen an ivory-billed woodpecker since 1944.
To help verify Sparling’s find, Cornell students spent part of their winter helping researchers sweep the swamp searching for roost holes large enough to hold the stately bird. To date, only six people have seen the ivory-billed woodpecker since Sparling found it.
The bird is known for the two-note rap of its bill as it rips into tree bark in search of edible grubs and beetle larvae. It became known as the Lord God bird because people seeing it would exclaim “Lord God, look at that bird.”
Hamilton said it is too early to discuss whether a captive mating program might increase the ivory-billed woodpecker’s population. So far, no more than one bird has been seen at a time – but the woodpeckers live only to age 15, so there was likely a mating pair in the region since 1990. “The best way is to let it be for right now,” he said.
Federal agencies are putting up $10 million to help preserve the habitat; the 800 acres that support the woodpecker are within a 55,000-acre preserve. Hamilton said the ivory-billed woodpecker likely survived because channels hadn’t been cut in the Cache River, which would have sped its flow and altered the nature of the land around it.
“I had known about that bird my entire life,” said Arkansas Game and Fish officer Mike McCormick. “A lot of people never realized what a treasure this place is.”