In order to retain all of the information contained in the videos, the movies presented here were de-interlaced using both fields (upper and lower) and play at half speed. The sampling rate is 60 frames per second for each movie. The artwork was prepared by Michael DiGiorgio.

Artistic field notes. My highest quality sightings are illustrated with sketches of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers that are painted onto photos of the scenes where the sightings occurred. These artistic field notes are intended to serve the same purpose as traditional field notes (which are typically crude sketches), with the exception that they were prepared by an artist in order to more accurately depict the sightings. On February 16, the bird flushed from close range on the left bank and provided a dramatic view of large white patches on the trailing edges of long and thin wings that beat very rapidly as the bird fled into the woods. On February 17, the bird glided low across the water on fixed wings and provided a view across the dorsal surfaces of both wings. The sketches accurately represent the quality of my views of the wings, but I focused on the wings and did not notice the dorsal stripes or other field marks.

High-pitched calls. The first 123 s of the audio recording that was obtained on a video camera are contained in this audio file, which contains sixteen of the high-pitched calls. The calls of two American Crows that seemed to be harassing the bird can also be heard in the recording.

Images and video of the scene. This panorama shows the tree from which I saw an Ivory-billed Woodpecker flush (to the right) and where it was briefly visible through a gap in the vegetation (to the left). This panorama shows the rest of the scene all the way to a fork in a tree deep in the woods (to the left), where the bird appeared more than ten minutes after it flushed and about 200 m from where it was initially perched. A reference tree is marked in both panoramas in order to show where they meet. This movie shows the entire scene from the location where I sat in the kayak with the video camera that day.

Through the gap. At 34 s into the video, the bird appears briefly through a gap in the vegetation. This footage can be viewed in this movie. Key frames of the video can be compared with interpretive sketches by rolling the mouse over the images below.



Wing aspect ratio. Ivory-billed Woodpeckers have relatively long and thin wings. According to data that Cornell obtained in Arkansas, aspect ratio ranges between 1.4 and 1.9 for Pileated Woodpeckers. This quantity is 2.4 for an Ivory-billed Woodpecker that was photographed in 1935. A model wing with an an aspect ratio of 2.4 was cut from a piece of aluminum and bent into the shape of the raised wing when the bird is visible through a gap in the vegetation. A comparison can be made with the model wing by rolling the mouse over the image below.



Comparison of profiles and postures. The profiles and postures of the bird in the video and an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in a photo obtained by James Tanner in the 1930s can be compared by rolling the mouse over the image below.



Comparison of bills. While obtaining the video, I was sitting in a kayak that was backed into the bank at a known position. Using a laser rangefinder that is accurate to within 0.5 m, I determined that the distance from the camera to the point where the bird was perched is 128 m. From a known distance, I photographed these casts of the bills of Pileated and Ivory-billed Woodpecker specimens. Scaling this photo to account for distance, I obtained this comparison. The Pileated Woodpecker bill appears to be smaller than the bill of the bird in the video. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker bill appears to be a good fit.

Short flight. The short flight can be viewed in this movie. A short flight by a Pileated Woodpecker can be viewed for comparison in this movie.

Takeoff into level flight. The takeoff into level flight can be viewed in this movie, which was processed to remove the effect of zooming the camera when I noticed motion. This version was not processed to remove the zoom. Level flights by Pileated Woodpeckers can be viewed for comparison in this movie. There appears to be a large white patch on the trailing edge of the dorsal surface of the left wing in this image, which corresponds to the point when the maximum zoom (and highest resolution) occurred.

Florida sighting. In early 2007, I visited the ornithologists that discovered Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Choctawhatchee River Basin in Florida. On January 19, I had a sighting of two Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. My attention was initially drawn to two large birds that were swooping around in the distant canopy. I had a brief (but good) view through binoculars of a large white patch on the trailing edge of the dorsal surface of the right wing of one of the birds as it swooped. I kept a high-definition video camera aimed in the direction of the birds and obtained this movie of one of the swoops. The bird starts near the upper right corner, rapidly drops downward, and starts to level off near the lower left corner. The path of the swoop, which is illustrated in this image, was far behind the trees that appear in the foreground. During this encounter, I also obtained video of a bird that flew from behind a tree with vigorous and rapid flaps. This footage can be viewed in this movie. There are only a few flaps, but the flap rate appears to be slightly greater than 10 Hz. The noise as the bird takes off could be a wing hitting a small tree branch.

Ideas for obtaining data. It is extremely difficult to observe Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, but observations are necessary for learning more about this species and determining where populations exist. During two years of searching for and observing this species, I came up with two ideas that should be useful. The first idea is designed for obtaining video footage from a kayak of birds that flush from nearby. Since the birds rapidly flee to cover, there is usually not sufficient time to set down the kayak paddles and reach for a camera. A solution to this problem is to mount a video camera directly on the paddles and constantly keep it running. The paddle-cam can be aimed at a fleeing bird almost instantly, with a motion that is similar to bringing a pair of binoculars to the eyes. With paddle-cam, it should be possible to obtain high-quality footage during sightings like those illustrated in the artistic field notes. The video that I obtained in Florida was obtained using the paddle-cam. Although this device was not designed for birds in the distant canopy, it helped to have a running camera in my hands when I spotted those birds. The other idea is to climb tall trees that provide unobstructed views out to large distances over suitable habitat. In the Pearl, there are many such trees, including a 27 m cypress that provides this view from 24 m above the ground. A much larger area can be observed from such a tree than from the ground. Observations from tall trees might provide important clues to the movements of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.