Ivory-billed Woodpecker, or The Lord God Bird, 2022
mixed media on paper with metallic accents
5.125" x 7"
SOLD
From the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposal for removing 23 species from the Federal Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants due to extinction:
The ivory-billed woodpecker (
Campephilus principalis
) was first described by Mark Catesby in 1731 (Tanner 1942, p. xv), under a different taxonomic nomenclature. It was the
largest woodpecker in the United States and the second largest in North America with an overall length of approximately 48-51 centimeters (cm) (18-20 inches), an estimated wingspan of 76-80 cm (29-31 inches), and a weight of 454-567 grams (g) (16-20 ounces); however, data from live birds are lacking, so these estimates were based on observations by ornithologists from the late 19th century who collected specimens
The ivory-billed woodpecker had a black and white plumage with a white chisel-tipped beak, yellow eyes, and a pointed crest. It was sexually dimorphic, with the sexes exhibiting different characteristics ( i.e., sizes, coloring, etc.). Females had a solid black crest, and males were red from the nape to the top of the crest with an outline of black on the front of the crest (Service 2010, p. 1). This large woodpecker produced distinctive sounds and had distinctive markings ( e.g., large white patch on the wing that can be seen from long distances (Tanner 1942, p. 1)), indicating a certain degree of detectability during surveys, if present.
Survey Effo
The last commonly agreed-upon sighting of the species was on the Singer Tract in the Tensas River region of northeast Louisiana in April of 1944.