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The ivory-billeds are everywhere!

Just ask the many bay area residents who have reported seeing the rare woodpeckers in their very own back yards. But what they've really spotted is a common city cousin.

By JEFF KLIKENBERG
Published March 18, 2007

Big-time ornithologists who have failed to photograph the rare-if-not-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker in the Florida Panhandle apparently have been hunting in the wrong spot.

"I'm looking out my bedroom window in Clearwater right now," reported a reader, responding to a March 4 story about the frustrating search for ivory-billeds on the Choctawhatchee River. "There's one of those woodpeckers 12 feet away."

Another caller snickered in disgust.

"The bird isn't rare. I see lots of them across the street from my house all the time. Tell those scientists to come down to Palm Harbor."

Ivory-billed woodpeckers are taking over Tampa, New Port Richey and St. Petersburg, too.

Wouldn't it be something if ivory-billed woodpeckers turned out to be as common in the Tampa Bay area as ants at a picnic?

Trouble is, the incredibly wary ivory-billed woodpecker is a wilderness creature. Historically, the bird was found only in Southern swamps that featured vast tracts of enormous living and dying trees. The last good photograph was taken in a Louisiana swamp in 1935.

Of course, we explained all of that on March 4. We also published excellent illustrations that showed the differences between the ivory-billed woodpecker and the common city cousin it superficially resembles, the pileated woodpecker.

But some readers are having none of it. "No question we have ivory-billed in our oaks."

I understand. I want to believe, too.

"My backyard in Gulfport on Jan. 28, 2007," wrote a hopeful reader who included a must-see picture.

Clinging to an oak in the photo is a beautiful black-and-white woodpecker with a distinct, red crest.

It's a pileated woodpecker, alas, as common as french fries at a McDonald's.

Jeff Klinkenberg can be reached at 727 893-8727 or klink@sptimes.com.

Pileated vs. ivory-billed

- The ivory-billed is significantly larger.

- The face of the pileated is mostly white, with a black stripe right behind the bill. The ivory-billed's face is mostly black.

- When a pileated is clinging to a tree, you won't see much white except on the neck and face. An ivory-billed has lots of white, including a couple of stripes that look like the bird is wearing suspenders.

[Last modified March 17, 2007, 16:31:34]