Hello Tweeters,

It will be interesting to see what kind of paper is presented by Mark B.
Robbins, Richard O. Prum and Jerome A. Jackson. If the main focus of the
paper is to question and challenge whether an Ivory-bill is depicted in the
video by David Luneau, then this treatise should be applauded as part of the
natural progression of scientific discourse. Let's face it, folks, the film
does not provide 100% conclusive evidence that the bird is an Ivory-bill.
The Cornell team apparently held off announcing the rediscovery of the
Ivory-bill because they were hoping to get the definitive shot. If the
Jackson paper provides a frame-by-frame analysis of the video as well as a
great deal of background data on the occurrence and frequency of leucistic
Pileated Woodpeckers, then the authors will have done an admirable job. If
examples, such as photographs of leucistic Pileateds (with the white "in all
the right places") are presented, this will only serve to further support
their contention that the bird depicted in the film is actually a leucistic
Pileated.

It is essential, however, that the distinction be made between the video and
the additional sightings by highly qualified Cornell field observers. If
Jackson et. al. extrapolate that because the bird depicted in the film is
actually a leucistic Pileated, then the reported sightings of Ivory-billed
Woodpecker by the Cornell team should now be considered invalid, or at least
seriously in question, would be going way, way too far. We must remember
that these are not the sightings of a biology undergrad student who happened
to be alone in the woods hunting turkeys (I mean no disrespect to David
Kulivan as I happen to believe he saw Ivory-bills in the Pearl River area as
well). These observations were made by experienced, careful observers
associated with one of the most prominent ornithological institutions in the
world. If this extra step is taken, the authors of this challenge would be
stepping onto thin ice. I believe that if they go this far, then the
question of professional jealousy can be raised. If they only challenge the
video and the video alone then Jackson et. al will have done the right thing
by furthering open discussion.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Jackson and the time that he
has invested in searching for Ivory-bills. I have had a fascination with
Ivory-bills for many, many years and have read literally everything I could
get my hands on about Ivory-bills including Dr. Jackson's work, In Search of
the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. He has spent more time in the field in both
the southern US and Cuba searching for Ivory-bills than anyone. In fact, it
must be remembered that it was Jerome Jackson who was one of the lone
dissenters when there was talk about declaring Ivory-bills extinct. With
this said, however, Dr. Jackson's association with this challenge appears a
little unseamly right now as he was, I believe quite unfairly, spurned by
the Cornell team.

Would a Bird Records Committee (BRC) have accepted the record if provided
only with the Luneau film? My suspicion has been that it probably would not
based on the film alone. If the film had not been presented to a BRC or if,
in fact, the film did not exist, then the BRC would only have written
reports from observers. Based solely on the written reports and field notes
of the qualified observers, I suspect that most BRC's would accept the
record. In fact, the Washington State BRC recently accepted a first state
record by two highly qualified observers of a fairly cryptically marked
species. The observation period was quite short and indeed truly amounted
to a "flyby." The field notes and written report were excellent, however,
and the reputation of the birders is impeccable as experienced field
observers.

Personally, I feel that the bird in the film is an Ivory-bill, but without
that perfect shot of an Ivory-bill "hitching" up a tree, there will, of
course be doubts. I do not, however, have any doubts that Ivory-bills were
observed on at least six other occasions in the swamps of eastern Arkansas.
I look forward to reading the Prum, Robbins, Jackson paper and I look
forward to reading Cornell's rebuttal. I hope that the focus of the
challenge paper remains completely on the video.

Please feel free to respond to me personally or to the group as I am,
obviously, always happy to talk ad nauseum about Ivory-bills.

Cheers and Good Birding.
Ted Kenefick
Seattle, WA
tgkenefick at msn.com