Conservation of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

M

Michael Collins

Member
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is one of the largest woodpeckers and most fascinating birds in the world. This iconic species of North America has been feared extinct only to be rediscovered several times during the past 100 years. The most recent rediscovery was announced in an article that was featured on the cover of Science in 2005. It was the first report of this species by ornithologists in several decades. Despite independent published reports from two other sites in the years that followed, the issue became controversial when nobody managed to obtain the clear photo that is regarded as the standard form of evidence for documenting birds. During eight years of fieldwork in the Pearl River swamp in Louisiana, I had ten sightings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and obtained video footage during three of the encounters. The videos contain the strongest evidence for the persistence of this species that has been obtained during the past several decades. I have published five papers on this work. The latest paper...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2330443X.2019.1637802

...contains (1) quantitative arguments for why the birds in the videos cannot be explained in terms of any species other than the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, (2) a waiting time analysis that sheds light on why this species has repeatedly vanished and is so difficult to find and photograph, and (3) documentation of a persistent pattern of folly and politics that has undermined the conservation of this species for several decades.
 
Daktari JG said:
Keep up the good fight. There certainly has been a whiteout on bringing this information to the public, If only science and not corruption led our government agencies.
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It's not just government agencies in this case. As documented with numerous examples in Sec. 6 of the paper, a problem of folly and politics exists within the field of ornithology. The editors of some of the leading journals have been complicit by simply taking the word of so-called experts without providing diligent oversight.
 
Michael Collins said:
It's not just government agencies in this case. As documented with numerous examples in Sec. 6 of the paper, a problem of folly and politics exists within the field of ornithology.
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This is becoming a real problem... there has been a large swing towards political correctness in the American Birding Association and related entities... there was a move to change a lot of birds named after people. Even though most of those names have been on the bird for many years and are well established in scientific literature.

Also the change of Gray Jay to Canada Jay... but nobody calls them Canada Jay, and Canada ended up rejecting the jay as national bird.
 
Thanks for sharing! I love the story of the Ivory-bill and really hope they are still out there.

Great Argus said:
This is becoming a real problem... there has been a large swing towards political correctness in the American Birding Association and related entities... there was a move to change a lot of birds named after people. Even though most of those names have been on the bird for many years and are well established in scientific literature.

Also the change of Gray Jay to Canada Jay... but nobody calls them Canada Jay, and Canada ended up rejecting the jay as national bird.
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Whenever I see the name Canada Jay in eBird, it still takes me a moment to remember: "Oh yeah, that's a Gray Jay".

Thank goodness the McCown's Longspur thing didn't happen, that would have changed so many bird names! The hyphen removal proposal was just dumb. Cooper Hawk just doesn't have that ring to it.
 
birdsandbats said:
Thank goodness the McCown's Longspur thing didn't happen, that would have changed so many bird names! The hyphen removal proposal was just dumb. Cooper Hawk just doesn't have that ring to it.
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Indeed. Almost all birds in the ABA area named after people would have gotten changed... would have disrupted a lot of taxonomy. But then they wanted to rename an Ammodramus Peterson's sparrow... :rolleyes:o_O
I very much agree on the hyphens... Brewer Sparrow and Forster Tern just don't sound right at all...
 
Daktari JG said:
whew I was really worried about the long-tailed duck, greater white-fronted goose etc
:p
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Those are all safe, and doubt they will ever see removal of the hyphen. The only species to lose their hyphens were ground doves of the genus Columbina. (was ground-dove, hyphen now removed.)
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
I'm curious: what's wrong with those names?
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I think its a combination of political correctness run amok plus a sense of wanting to be important, so change names to make a name for yourself.

What I don't understand is why anyone who cares about birds/wildlife/nature would want to suppress news of the ivory- billed woodpecker
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
I'm curious: what's wrong with those names?
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Daktari JG said:
I think its a combination of political correctness run amok plus a sense of wanting to be important, so change names to make a name for yourself.
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Nothing is really wrong with the names. Daktari is correct in that it's largely political correctness. The argument being most of those birds are named after prominent white males and so we should change them to be fairer to everybody. (Nevermind nearly half the birds in North America are named after somebody in some way, whether common name or scientifically.)

(Below article may be a bit offensive depending on your opinion)
How to Know the Birds: No. 7, What the Swainson’s Hawk Says « ABA Blog
 
Great Argus said:
Nothing is really wrong with the names. Daktari is correct in that it's largely political correctness. The argument being most of those birds are named after prominent white males and so we should change them to be fairer to everybody. (Nevermind nearly half the birds in North America are named after somebody in some way, whether common name or scientifically.)

(Below article may be a bit offensive depending on your opinion)
How to Know the Birds: No. 7, What the Swainson’s Hawk Says « ABA Blog
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May I suggest that you start your own thread to discuss this topic? I realize it must be of tremendous interest, but it is very rude to hijack a thread with an unrelated topic.
 
Daktari JG said:
What I don't understand is why anyone who cares about birds/wildlife/nature would want to suppress news of the ivory- billed woodpecker
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Michael Collins said:
Possibly because their ego is more important to them than conservation. The information is all laid out in my paper. I suggest that you read it and make your own decisions.
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Having read the paper in question, I can't say there's any evidence presented within for the existence of an ego-driven conspiracy to suppress the continued existence of the IBW :p
 
Your quote attributed to me was said by Michael Collins. The paper is about the birds existence
the discussion is about why it is ignored.
 
Daktari JG said:
Your quote attributed to me was said by Michael Collins. The paper is about the birds existence
the discussion is about why it is ignored.
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An edit error joined two quotes together - I've fixed it.
 
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