Evidence Suggesting That Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers (<I>Campephilus
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Copyright © 2006 by the author(s). Published here under license by the Resilience Alliance. Hill, G. E., D. J. Mennill, B. W. Rolek, T. L. Hicks, and K. A. Swiston. 2006. Evidence suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) exist in Florida. Avian Conservation and Ecology - Écologie et conservation des oiseaux 1(3): 2. [online] URL: http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/ Research Papers Evidence Suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) Exist in Florida Données suggérant la présence du Pic à bec ivoire (Campephilus principalis) en Floride (États-Unis) Geoffrey E. Hill1, Daniel J. Mennill2, Brian W. Rolek1, Tyler L. Hicks1, and Kyle A. Swiston2 ABSTRACT. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) disappeared from the forests of southeastern North America in the early 20th Century and for more than 50 years has been widely considered extinct. On 21 May 2005, we detected a bird that we identified as an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the mature swamp forest along the Choctawhatchee River in the panhandle of Florida. During a subsequent year of research, members of our small search team observed birds that we identified as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers on 14 occasions. We heard sounds that matched descriptions of Ivory-billed Woodpecker acoustic signals on 41 occasions. We recorded 99 putative double knocks and 210 putative kent calls. We located cavities in the size range reported for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and larger than those of Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) that have been reported in the literature or that we measured in Alabama. We documented unique foraging signs consistent with the feeding behavior of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. Our evidence suggests that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may be present in the forests along the Choctawhatchee River and warrants an expanded search of this bottomland forest habitat. RÉSUMÉ. Le Pic à bec ivoire (Campephilus principalis) est disparu des forêts du sud-est de l'Amérique du Nord au début du 20e siècle et pendant plus de 50 ans, cette espèce a été considérée comme étant éteinte. Le 21 mai 2005, nous avons détecté un individu que nous avons identifié comme étant un Pic à bec ivoire dans une forêt marécageuse à maturité le long de la rivière Choctawhatchee, dans l'extrême nord-ouest de la Floride (États-Unis). Durant l'année qui a suivi, les membres de notre petite équipe de recherche ont observé des individus identifiés comme étant des Pics à bec ivoire à 14 occasions. Nous avons entendu des sons qui correspondent aux descriptions des signaux acoustiques du Pic à bec ivoire à 41 occasions. Nous avons enregistré 99 tambourinages qui pourraient être des double knocks et 210 cris qui ressemblent au kent émis par ce pic. Nous avons trouvé des cavités de taille semblable à celles rapportées pour le Pic à bec ivoire et de taille plus grande que celles rapportées pour le Grand Pic (Dryocopus pileatus) tant dans la littérature que dans notre aire d'étude en Alabama. Nous avons également photographié des excavations qui correspondent à celles qui seraient associées à la quête de nourriture chez le Pic à bec ivoire. Ces données suggèrent que le Pic à bec ivoire pourrait être présent dans les forêts situées le long de la rivière Choctawhatchee et justifient une recherche plus approfondie dans ce secteur de forêt marécageuse. Key Words: avian conservation; bottomland hardwood forest; Campephilus principalis; Choctawhatchee River; Ivory-billed Woodpecker 1Auburn University, 2University of Windsor Avian Conservation and Ecology - Écologie et conservation des oiseaux 1(3): 2 http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/ INTRODUCTION detection. Two of us (BWR and KAS) camped in the area throughout this period, and the other The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus researchers visited periodically. We moved through principalis) was once resident in the mature the area daily in kayaks and by foot, looking and bottomland forests of southeastern North America listening for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. We carried from east Texas to Florida and the Carolinas along small video cameras to record images and sounds. the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts and north in the In addition, we used seven automated listening Mississippi River Valley to southern Missouri stations to make 24-h digital sound recordings (Jackson 2002; 2006a). Populations were greatly throughout our study area. diminished and isolated by the cutting of swamp forests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and collectors shot many of the remaining birds (Tanner METHODS 1942, Jackson 2002, 2006a). The last well- documented Ivory-billed Woodpecker lived in the Sound Recordings Singer Tract in northeast Louisiana before the last of that virgin forest was logged in 1944 (Jackson We erected seven automated listening stations 2002, 2006a). A second, disjunct population of consisting of Sennheiser ME-62 omni-directional Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may have persisted in the microphones with K6 power modules and Marantz mountains of Cuba until 1988, but that population PMD-670 solid-state digital recorders powered by was pronounced extinct by the end of the 20th sealed lead-acid batteries. Microphones were century (Lammertink 1995). Over the last 60 years, housed in rain guards made of polyvinyl chloride a few sight records in the continental United States (PVC) tubing and attached to the top of 3-m wooden have suggested the presence of Ivory-billed stakes using 30-cm shelf brackets. Stakes were Woodpeckers, particularly in Louisiana (Gallagher attached to small trees so that sound was recorded 2005), but most bird authorities concurred that the from all directions. All components were Ivory-billed Woodpecker was likely extinct by the camouflaged with spray paint. To facilitate 24-h latter part of the 20th century (American recordings, sounds were recorded as MP3 files at Ornithologists' Union 1983). In 2005, a video 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, 160 kbps onto Hitachi 3GB purporting to show an Ivory-billed Woodpecker microdrive cards. Memory cards and batteries were along the Cache River in Arkansas was published changed daily. (Fitzpatrick et al. 2005), but whether or not the indistinct image captured on this video is an Ivory- Field recordings were split into consecutive 60-min billed Woodpecker remains contentious (Jackson recordings and converted to AIF or WAV format 2006b, Sibley et al. 2006, Fitzpatrick et al. 2006a, using “Audition” (Adobe, San Jose, California). 2006b). The failure of a massive search of the forests Files were then scanned using “Syrinx-PC” sound of eastern Arkansas from 2004 to 2006 to reliably analysis software (J. Burt, Seattle, Washington), relocate Ivory-billed Woodpeckers suggests that no which allowed us to visualize all recordings minute population of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers persists in by minute, to compare field recordings with that area (Fitzpatrick et al. 2006b). spectrograms of historical Ivory-billed Woodpecker “kent” calls from 1935, and to directly annotate On 21 May 2005, GEH, TLH, and BWR detected a sounds of interest. For all double knocks, we bird that appeared to be an Ivory-billed Woodpecker measured the delay between the two knocks (start in a mature swamp forest along the Choctawhatchee time of the first knock to the start time of the second River north of the town of Bruce in the Florida knock) using the time cursors of Syrinx-PC panhandle. The Choctawhatchee River and its major (resolution 0.001 s). We measured relative tributaries flow through more than 20 000 ha of amplitude of knocks using the Maximum RMS mature, seasonally flooded forest. Baldcypress Power feature of Audition (background noise below (Taxodium distichum) was selectively cut from this 400 Hz was filtered as necessary using the FFT filter watershed in the early 20th century, but extensive function of Audition). stands of oak (Quercus spp.), other hardwoods, and scattered huge baldcypress remained uncut. From December 2005 to May 2006 we searched for Ivory- billed Woodpeckers in an approximately 500-ha plot of forest surrounding the location of our initial Avian Conservation and Ecology - Écologie et conservation des oiseaux 1(3): 2 http://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/ Cavities We measured bark adhesion within our 500-ha Ivory-billed Woodpecker study area in Florida, and To measure the numerous large cavities in the 500- in three seasonally flooded bottomland hardwood ha study plot, we used a retractable 12-m pole to forests along Saugahatchee, Choctafaula, and raise a ruler next to cavity entrances and then took Uphapee Creeks in Lee and Macon counties, a digital photograph of each entrance and ruler. We Alabama, approximately 200 km north of the photographed 131 cavities clearly enough and with Florida site. All four of these sites support high a scale in the photo so that we could quantify cavity densities of Pileated Woodpeckers, but we have entrance size. We used “ImageJ” software (U.S. detected no Ivory-billed Woodpeckers during National Institutes of Health) to calculate the intensive bird surveys of the three sites north of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of each Choctawhatchee over the past 4 years. The three photographed cavity entrance. Photographing northern sites supported mature bottomland cavities at an angle from below is likely to distort hardwood forests with a history of disturbance and their size, but the distortion should result in an tree-species composition that was largely similar to underestimate of the vertical dimension, thus that of the forests along the Choctawhatchee River. making our measurements of cavity size The northern creek bottomlands were narrower and conservative. less extensive than the vast swamps along the Choctawhatchee River. At all sites, common trees In July and August 2006, we searched for large were water hickory (Carya aquatica), spruce pine cavities in forests in Lee and Macon counties, (Pinus glabra), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), Alabama, approximately 200 km north of our Ivory- red maple (Acer rubrum), overcup oak (Quercus billed Woodpecker study area.