Saturday, October 29, 2011

Online Images of Extinct Woodpecker

When you're a birder, friends and family will routinely ask you to identify a bird they observed in their yard or at times, and thankfully I might add, inform you of the latest news in the birding world. Not sure how I missed the exciting news that was released by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology earlier this week, but I certainly appreciate my cousin for passing along this story he read on the CBC News site.

On Wednesday, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology posted the only known film footage of the extinct Imperial Woodpecker on its blog, Round Robin. In 1956, an amateur ornithologist filmed a female Imperial Woodpecker during an expedition in Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental. This species has not been seen alive since the 1950's and the film provides valuable information on this exquisite woodpecker.

Sadly, most of the old-growth pine forest where the bird was observed has been cut down so any dreams of a sighting by researchers is long gone.










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