Species › Birds › Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Campephilus principalis

Very rareBird
Illustration of Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis)

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was the largest woodpecker in North America and possibly the largest in the world, and may now be extinct — it was last confirmed in the United States in 1944 before possible sightings in Arkansas in 2004 triggered a massive, inconclusive search. The male had a striking ivory bill and brilliant red crest; both sexes had a large white wing patch visible at rest. Its loss would be a tragic consequence of logging the bottomland forests of the American South.

Habitat
Old-growth bottomland hardwood forests
Diet
Wood-boring beetle larvae from recently dead trees
How common
Very rare

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