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May 2005 Newsletter

WildBirds.com is devoted to birding around the country
and around the world.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Found !!

By now you have heard the amazing news that a male Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been seen in Arkansas. Between February 11, 2004, and February 14, 2005, the search team reported at least 15 sightings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (involving 7,000 hours of search time). The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy.

There is actually a brief video of the bird (flying away) that appears to show the white trailing edges of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. No clear photographs have yet been obtained of the bird. Researchers believe that there is only one male -- but they continue the search. In the U.S., the last reliable sightings reports were from 1944 by Don Eckelberry, and Richard Pough in the Singer Tract in Louisiana.

Recent expeditions to eastern Cuba failed to produce any evidence of the bird there -- its last stronghold. In Cuba, the last reliable sightings with photographs were from 1948.

To learn more about the recent sightings and the expedition, please visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arkansas Game and Fish and Natural Heritage Commissions, and The Nature Conservancy are working hard to provide managed access for birders and other visitors. At this time, however, we cannot provide specific information about the localities of the sightings.

If you are planning a visit to the area, please be prepared to cooperate with local authorities and obey all local regulations established to protect the highly endangered ivory-bill and its habitat. Absolutely no playback of Ivory-Billed Woodpecker calls or drumming sounds will be allowable. Please observe your highest standards of birding ethics. Also, please be aware that the chances of actually making a sighting of this elusive bird are extremely small -- a massive search effort over the last year has yielded very few detections. And please be prepared to document your sighting with a photo or video!

Birding in Bhutan

My wife Roz and I just returned from a wonderful month-long birding trip to India and Bhutan with David Bishop and David Wolf of Victor Emanuel Nature Tours. We spent a couple of days birding around Delhi and the Taj Mahal and them flew to Bhutan via Katmandu, Nepal. The short plane ride between Katmandu and Paro, Bhutan skirted the southern edge of the Himalayas and passed by the five tallest mountains in the world!

It is very hard to describe this magical kingdom. Over 70% of the land is covered in forests. The king of Bhutan talks about "Gross National Happiness" rather than Gross National Product when describing recent advances in his country. Life for many is exactly as it was 400 years ago. Dzongs built in the 17th century house the monks in their red robes. Even the smallest houses are ornately painted and everyone smiles and waves as you pass by. Cattle herders walk along the road with their cattle and families as they trek to higher pastures for the summer. At 10,000 feet the forests are splashed with color from hundreds of red, pink and white Rhododendron trees in bloom.

The birds were often extremely colorful and active. We repeatedly had flocks of 10-15 species mobbing us. A small bare tree holding a dozen active Blue-tailed Sunbirds and Mrs. Gould's Sunbirds was one of the highlights of the trip. We also managed killer views of a male Himalayan Monal through the scope. A male and female Ward's Trogon were the rarest birds of the trip -- I had never seen the pinkish-purple color of a male Ward's Trogon in nature before! We also found the Beautiful Nuthatch as well as over 300 other species. During the trip we added two new species for Bhutan including the Asian Short-toed Lark (my 3,333 lifer).