Hi All,
I'm a big fan of birds. I now live in the UK so I won't be able to see the Big Year for a while. Is the ivory billed woodpecker in this movie? Is it mentioned? Which rare birds are shown in the movie?
Thanks!
Clivy, I haven't seen the film yet but I read the book and the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was not mentioned. The book is set in 1998 -- the IBWO was "rediscovered" in 2004 when the bird was briefly filmed by Tim Gallagher. While Gallagher claims his team glimpsed the bird a few times, the sightings and the videos are doubted by some. I would say the consensus now is that the IBWO is extinct. So when the 1998 Big Year was happening, the last official sighting in the US would have been in 1944 -- the contestants would have thought the bird long extinct.
shareI think, amongst birders, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is considered extinct. The most recent "sightings" are not being recognized by the ABA, were most likely Pileated Woodpeckers.
shareGood point. By most official measures, the bird is extinct. But personally, I think most birders who briefly had their hopes rekindled have now accepted the bird as extinct. After reading Gallagher's book (which makes a good argument for a series of unverified but reliable sightings in/around the Singer Tract since the last official sighting) and watching the video a few dozen times, I want to believe it was an Ivory-Billed but given the countless birders that descended, including the Cornell team, it's very hard to believe the bird was there but never seen again.
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