Ivory-billed Woodpecker

- Class: Aves - Order: Piciformes - Family: Picidae - Genus: Campephilus - Species: C. principalis INFORMATION ABOUT IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER The status of no other bird species has been more heavily-scrutinised than that of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which was the largest woodpecker in the United States. Considered extinct in the United States since the logging of the Singer Tract in Louisiana in 1944 (which harboured the last known population), numerous undocumented and badly-documented occurrences of the species deep in the southeastern swamp forests have taken place since 2004. Some of these observations have been made by university researchers, but without clear photographic documentation the debate over this species' existence continues. The last known population in Cuba was likely extirpated in the late 1980s. As long as potential habitat (which is difficult to access) exists, and nobody obtains unambiguous proof its existence, the debate over the status of this iconic species will rage on.