Woodpecker Thought to Be Extinct Is Sighted in Arkansas

The ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird long thought extinct, has been sighted in the swamp forests of eastern Arkansas for the first time in more than 60 years, Cornell University scientists said today.

The bird, one of the largest species of woodpecker in the world, disappeared after large-scale logging felled thousands of acres of forest in the Southeast between the 1880's and 1940's. Scientists said they could confirm the existence of at least one male.

The last conclusive sighting of the woodpecker in North America occurred in Cuba in 1944.

"It's a landmark rediscovery," said Scott Simon, director of the Nature Conservancy's Arkansas chapter.

The sighting of the woodpecker, which has a distinctive white pattern on its back and on the trailing edges of the wings, was first reported in the journal Science on its Web site today.