Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Campephilus principalis
Conservation Status
Critically EndangeredAves · Piciformes · Picidae
About
The ivory-billed woodpecker is a woodpecker native to the Southern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and hunting have reduced populations so severely that the last universally accepted sighting in the United States was in 1944, and the last universally accepted sighting in Cuba was in 1987.
Fun Fact
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was thought extinct since the 1940s and remains one of the world's most disputed birds—unverified sightings and sonic recordings are still debated by ornithologists.
Quick Facts
Habitat
Found in bottomland hardwood forests, including dense swampland, and in temperate coniferous forests.
Diet
Diet consists of large beetle larvae, particularly wood-boring Cerambycidae beetles, supplemented by vegetable matter, including southern magnolia, pecans, acorns, hickory nuts, wild grapes, and persimmons.
Lifespan
15 years
Threats
- Old-Growth Forest Destruction
- Historical Hunting and Specimen Collection
- Possible Extinction