ivory-billed woodpecker

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i·vo·ry-billed woodpecker

(ī′və-rē-bĭld′, īv′rē-)

A large, possibly extinct woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) of the southern United States and Cuba, having black plumage, white wing patches, an ivory-colored bill, and a bright red crest in the male. Also called ivorybill.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

i′vory-billed` wood′pecker

a large black-and-white woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, of the southern U.S. and Cuba: close to extinction. Also called i′vory-bill`.

[1805–15, Amer.]

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Noun

ivory-billed woodpecker - large black-and-white woodpecker of southern United States and Cuba having an ivory bill; nearly extinct

Campephilus principalis, ivorybill

peckerwood, woodpecker, pecker - bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects

Campephilus, genus Campephilus - a genus of Picidae

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The tide of sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers from these remote swamps continues across the South.

Woodpeckers: THE ENGINEERS OF ECOSYSTEMS

Chasing the ghost bird: Science, skepticism, and the ivory-billed woodpecker. Skeptical Inquirer, (34)3, 32-34.

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In bogus interviews with an Arkansas mayor, sheriff and pastor, the latter claims that the apparent return of the ivory-billed woodpecker after six decades is the answer to a dying town's prayers.

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THE SOURCE: "Bottomland Ghost: Southern Encounters and Obsessions With the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker" by Michael K.

Ghost bird

WHEN Emily Dickinson wrote "Hope is the thing with feathers," we can be sure that she was not talking about the ivory-billed woodpecker. But "hope" has become an operative word in the current drama about this creature.

A thing with feathers: the hunt for one of the most elusive creatures on earth has sparked an almost religious fervour among North American ornithologists. In the words of one naturalist: "The bird is so iconic: big, beautiful, mysterious - a symbol of everything that has gone wrong with our relationship to the environment"

The bird had large white patches on the trailing edges of its wings and a vee of white stripes on its back--characteristic features of the ivory-billed woodpecker, last seen in the United States 60 years before and widely believed to be extinct.

Bye bye, birdie ... and myriad other creatures humans are wiping out

Last April, scientists announced that an ivory-billed woodpecker, last seen in 1944, had been spotted in an Arkansas swamp forest on more than eight occasions.

Strangeworld

Reports that the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, is still with us thrilled bird watchers and others, but this sort of second chance seldom occurs in nature.

Empty skies

As a child in the 1970s, I dreamed of being the first person to discover that the ivory-billed woodpecker was not really extinct.

The Second Coming of The Lord God Bird: an eschatology of desire

Like the ivory-billed woodpecker, cardiac murmurs have not gone extinct.

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THE GRAIL BIRD: HOT ON THE TRAIL OF THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER provides their adventures and their personal observation by two qualified observers who could verify their find.

The Grail Bird

The ivory-billed woodpecker, long feared extinct, was seen in a remote part of Arkansas 60 years after the last confirmed U.S.