ivory-billed woodpecker

i·vo·ry-billed woodpecker

I0266700 (ī′və-rē-bĭld′, īv′rē-)n. A large, possibly extinct woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) of the southern United States and Cuba, having black plumage, white wing patches, an ivory-colored bill, and a bright red crest in the male. Also called ivorybill.

i′vory-billed` wood′pecker

n. a large black-and-white woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, of the southern U.S. and Cuba: close to extinction. Also called i′vory-bill`. [1805–15, Amer.]

Thesaurus

Noun

ivory-billed woodpecker - large black-and-white woodpecker of southern United States and Cuba having an ivory bill; nearly extinctCampephilus principalis, ivorybillpeckerwood, woodpecker, pecker - bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insectsCampephilus, genus Campephilus - a genus of Picidae

ivory-billed woodpecker

ivory-billed woodpecker,

common name for the largest of the North American woodpeckers, Campephilus principalis. Once plentiful in Southern hardwood forests, it was believed to be extinct or nearing extinction after 1952. The last known members of this species had been reported from the deepest forests of NW Florida and central Louisiana, and there were no confirmed sightings after 1944 until 2004, when one may have been spotted in an E Arkansas swamp. The Arkansas evidence, however, has been criticized by a number of ornithologists as ambiguous.

A shiny blue-black in color with extensive white markings on its wings and neck, this bird is distinguished by its pure white bill and by a prominent top crest, red in the male and black in the female. A true woodpeckerwoodpecker,
common name for members of the Picidae, a large family of climbing birds found in most parts of the world. Woodpeckers typically have sharp, chisellike bills for pecking holes in tree trunks, and long, barbed, extensible tongues with which they impale their insect
..... Click the link for more information. , it has a strong and straight chisellike bill and a long, mobile, hard-tipped, sticky tongue. It measures from 18 to 20 in. (46–51 cm) in length, with short legs and feet ending in large, curved claws. The ivory-bill deposits from three to five glossy white eggs per clutch in an unlined hole, preferably drilled in a cypress tree. Of its reproductive habits little more than this is known.

The decrease in the number of ivory-bills may be largely blamed on the cutting and eventual disappearance of the trees in which they lived. It is not known how many ivory-bills may survive today in the forests of the S United States and in Cuba. Ivory-billed woodpeckers are classified in the phylum ChordataChordata
, phylum of animals having a notochord, or dorsal stiffening rod, as the chief internal skeletal support at some stage of their development. Most chordates are vertebrates (animals with backbones), but the phylum also includes some small marine invertebrate animals.
..... Click the link for more information. , subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Piciformes, family Picidae.

Bibliography

See T. Gallagher, The Grail Bird (2005).

ivory-billed woodpecker

i·vo·ry-billed woodpecker

i′vory-billed` wood′pecker

ivory-billed woodpecker

ivory-billed woodpecker,

Bibliography

ivory-billed woodpecker

Synonyms for ivory-billed woodpecker

noun large black-and-white woodpecker of southern United States and Cuba having an ivory bill

Synonyms

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