Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Back in April 2005 a national announcement proclaimed the Ivory-billed woodpecker, considered extinct, had been re-discovered in an area in Arkansas known as the Big Woods.

And it was definitely the most exciting news that anyone can remember in the birding circles.

Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist with Parks and Wildlife.

There have been a lot of skeptics that have seen the documentation – it’s a little fuzzy – but there have been lots of people going back to the site, and have had glimpses. But no one’s been able to secure that really golden shot of the bird.

A team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ivory-Billed Woodpecker research project has a team on the ground in Arkansas looking for this elusive bird.

The exciting thing is that this bird possibly has survived after sixty years of not being detected in the US; and the last sighting of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker in Texas was in November 1904. So, it’s been a long time since that bird has been in Texas. It occurred in the eastern third of the state, roughly, in mature river-bottom habitat.

Many east Texans claim to have seen Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, but tomorrow we discuss a case of mistaken identity.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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