Thursday, March 22, 2012

The King of Woodpeckers


Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Scientific name
Known as Ivory-billed Woodpecker, its oficial name is Campephilus principalis,it is in the Animalia Kingdom, Chordata Phylum, aves class, piciformes order and Picidae family.

Habitas and habits
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is a bird almost extinct, it’s a bird which has blue, white and black plumage (female) and a red head (male). It usually lives in the Southern United States (some subspecies were found in Cuba), where there are hardwood swamps and pine forests that have dead and decaying trees. Through the times the Ivory-billed moved to other places like North Carolina and Florida. This woodpecker eats larvae of beetles, seed, fruits and small insects.

Why are they endangered?
This animal is critically endangered and probably it will be extinct in few years, its last appearance was in 2004, Arkansas. The biggest number of Ivory-billed Woodpecker was between 1940 and 1950, nowadays, it is almost disappearing, because of the habitat destruction (this fact happened especially during the American Civil War) and the hunting.

How many are still alive?
The number of these woodpeckers is uncertain, because of this, many people believe that it is already extinct. There are rewards for who finds one. Ivory-billed or some information about it.

Actions taken by organizations to protect it
After its last appearance, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is looking for other of this woodpecker, their strategy is to take care of the animal’s habitat and to invest in experts who have a chance of to find specimes.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory-billed_Woodpecker
              http://www.ivorybill.org/
              http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/ivory-billed-woodpecker/
              http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/ivorybill/Updates.html


6 comments:

  1. I've seen two or three in southwest georgia around Bainbridge.This was about 1989/90.

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  2. We have a beautiful and big male that hangs out at our woodpile here inn Highland Mills N.Y. What a great surprise to see! We would often hear him but never imagined he would be that type of wood pecker! And a friend of ours whom was living 10-15 miles from here also had one living by him.

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  3. My husband believes there is one around our house in southern Georgia.

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  4. I have one that lives on my property and is a beautiful male. He's lives between several dead trees on my property. Reach out to me if you would like to share how I can best preserve its habitat.

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  5. How big can they get? If about 3ft or so, we have seen one on our property in washington state(nw area of the state)we couldn't believe the amount of wood it was throwing as it pecked a stump in our yard. wish we would have caught it on video.

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  6. Just saw one outside Hardy, Arkansas in north east Arkansas. We've heard it at night and I tried to get my Camara. By the time I got it he was gone but I saw him fly back into the woods towards the spot we hear him. Strikingly beautiful species

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