21 species declared extinct — but not the ivory-billed woodpecker

The Fish and Wildlife Service has ruled that 21 endangered species are now extinct, but its list does not include the popular and controversial ivory-billed woodpecker.

The ornithological world has been in an uproar since the federal agency in 2021 proposed extinction status for the bird found in swampy southern bottomlands.

Scientists and amateur birders alike have fought bitterly for decades over evidence – or lack of it – for the continued existence of one of the world’s largest woodpeckers at 18-20 inches in length.

The National Aviary in Pittsburgh teamed up about five years ago with independent researchers to search for the woodpecker in undisclosed bottomlands in Louisiana.

Known as Project Principalis, the group published its findings in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology and Evolution earlier this year. The researchers reported repeated observations of multiple ivorybills with drone footage that some dispute.

“The National Aviary is heartened by the USFWS decision to keep the ivory-billed woodpecker on the Endangered Species List pending further review,” said Steven Latta, the Aviary’s director of conservation and field research and co-leader of Project Principalis.

The Aviary and Latta are confident in their “cumulative evidence” as well as the peer-reviewed paper and recent presentation to the American Ornithological Society, Latta said in an email.

Project Principalis’ work continues in Louisiana with intensive field studies starting up again early next year.

Extinct species

Celebrating the 50th year of the federal Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced its ruling on now-extinct species on Monday.

“Federal protection came too late to reverse these species’ decline, and it’s a wake-up call on the importance of conserving imperiled species before it’s too late,” agency director Martha Williams said in a news announcement.

Many of the species existed in low numbers for years while lingering on the endangered species list, which offers protections and aid to bolster populations.

The list covers mammals, birds, insects, fish, crustaceans, trees, grasses and flowers. None of the 21 extinct species is in Pennsylvania.

Newly extinct species include the Bachman’s warbler, a songbird from Florida and South Carolina, nine bird species from Hawaii and Guam, eight species of freshwater mussels, two species of fish in Ohio and Texas and one bat species from Guam.

“The finality of extinction for 10 bird species is sobering news,” scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said in a news statement Tuesday.

“With one in eight birds in the world today – more than 1,000 species – threatened with extinction, and many more in decline, the biodiversity crisis is moving beyond species loss toward the collapse of entire ecosystems.”

On the postponement of a final decision on the ivorybill, the Cornell Lab said, “We must redouble our efforts to protect species and habitats to ensure they never become as imperiled.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a perennial mint species in Hawaii from the extinction list because surveys identified new habitat.

There are 20 federally endangered or threatened species found in Pennsylvania, including the piping plover, Eastern massasauga rattlesnake, multiple species of mussels, the bog turtle and the Indiana bat.

Ivorybill saga continues

The agency won’t list the ivory-billed woodpecker as extinct but it won’t verify its existence either.

“The finalization of the ivory-billed woodpecker rule remains an ongoing Service effort,” said Christine Schuldheisz, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, in an email.

“We continue to work toward reaching a decision based on the best available scientific and commercial data.”

The agency will continue to review and accept new information, she said.

Matt Courtman, an accomplished birder and former attorney from Monroe, Louisiana, was happy to hear the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t remove the ivorybill from the Endangered Species List.

Courtman invited the National Aviary to join research efforts in Louisiana. He also requested a public hearing and public comment period from the federal agency after it proposed declaring the woodpecker extinct.

“This is an exciting time for ivorybill researchers,” he said. “We no longer have the prospect of FWS declaring ivorybill extinct.”

He leads a bimonthly Zoom public meeting on the ivorybill and search teams, known as Mission Ivorybill, focusing on the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. He is offering a $12,000 reward for anyone who can lead them to an ivorybill nesting or roosting tree cavity.

“With all of the evidence, it would be in bad judgment to declare the ivorybill extinct,” said Bobby Harrison of Huntsville, Alabama, a semi-retired photography professor at Oakwood University.

Harrison and Tim Gallagher saw an ivorybill in Arkansas in 2004 that ignited expeditions producing a video and a peer-reviewed paper on the bird’s existence more than a decade ago.

More recently, Harrison submitted to the federal agency a video of the purported woodpecker taken in 2020.

“You can’t blame personnel at Fish and Wildlife. They are doing the best they can with what they have,” he said.

The ruling, or lack thereof, doesn’t change a thing for Harrison, who is still out there searching for the bird.