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Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Florida Panhandle?

 

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AUBURN – Geoff Hill, a Professor and Ornithologist in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, presented his research team’s findings of evidence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Florida Panhandle in the Auburn Sciences Center Auditorium on Friday, November 3.

Hill led a kayaking expedition in May 2005 with two research assistants, Tyler Hicks and Brian Rolek, along a section of the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle. Soon after they started their float down the Choctawhatchee, Rolek observed an ivorybill in flight and Hill heard a double knock, the signature sound of the ivorybill. Numerous large cavities in trees and places where thick, tightly adhering bark had been scaled from dead trees added impetus to the sighting.

Hill and his assistants made subsequent visits to the area, located near the town of Bruce, Fla., in an effort to better document the birds. On the weekend after their initial discovery, Hicks, an expert in bird identification, got a clear view of a female Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which has distinct plumage, including a white trailing edge on the upper wing, white stripes down the back and an all black crest.

Hill then organized a follow-up search of the area and invited Dan Mennill, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario, to join the search team. Mennill, who is an expert at recording and analyzing animal sounds, devised a means to remotely record sounds in the swamp and erected seven listening stations in the area of the ivorybill sightings.

From May 2005 to May 2006, the Auburn/Windsor research team recorded 14 sightings of ivorybills, including two by Hill. From more than 10,000 hours of audio recordings, Mennill and his research assistant Kyle Swiston have identified more than 300 sounds that match descriptions of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.

“The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, so impressive it was called the Lord God Bird in some regions, was thought to be extinct for more than 50 years,” said Hill. “Now, there is new hope for scientists, naturalists and birders that these birds persist in the panhandle of Florida.”