Evidence suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis)
exist in Florida. Geoffrey E. Hill, Daniel J. Mennill, Brian W. Rolek, Tyler L. Hicks, Kyle A. Swiston. 2006. Avian Conservation and Ecology – Ecologie et conservation des oiseaux 1(3): 2 [online] URL: http://www.ace-eco.org/vol 1/iss3/art2/.

This paper presents exciting new evidence that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may not be extinct and may be located along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle. Since the early 1940’s, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is thought to have been extirpated from the southeastern bottomland forests of the United States. Its disappearance was mainly due to the cutting of the swamp forests in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A Cuban mountain population of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers was thought to have been present until the late 1980’s, but is now considered to be gone. In 2005, a single woodpecker was briefly captured on video along the Cache River in Arkansas and some ornithologists suggest that the video indicates that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are in that area. However, other ornithologists still wait for unquestionable evidence that Ivorybilled Woodpeckers occur in Arkansas.