Ivorybill Hunters

Abstract

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker holds the attention of birders and naturalists like no other species of bird, so it was huge news in 2005 when the Cornell Lab of Ornithology announced that an Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been found and recorded on video along the Cache River. The announcement inspired ornithologist Geoff Hill and two of his research assistants to search some river swamps in south Alabama and the Florida panhandle. A weekend outing turned into a year-long adventure, however, when the little team of explorers found an Ivory-billed Woodpecker along the Choctawhatchee River on the Florida panhandle. Professor and author Geoff Hill gives a first-hand account of the discovery and follow-up search for this rarest and more noble of North American birds. Rather than a bland technical account, Hill conveys the trials and tribulations of chasing a mostly silent and elusive bird through a vast swamp wilderness. As a birder scientist with a knack for telling stories, Hill provides a unique perspective on ivorybill searches, and what does and does not constitute proof of this elusive bird. The story is as much a quest for the last remnants of an American wilderness as it is a search for a rare bird.