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Creature record / 1999

David Kulivan's Ivory-billed Woodpecker Sighting, Pearl River WMA, Louisiana (1999)

April 1, 1999 · Pearl River Wildlife Management Area, southwest of Picayune, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States
28Thinly documented Cryptid Creature 26 sources 1 videos

April 1, 1999. Pearl River Wildlife Management Area, Louisiana. David Kulivan, an LSU student, sat in camouflage at the base of a tree, waiting for a gobbler. Two large woodpeckers landed on a water oak about 25 yards away. A pair. One with a red crest, one with a black crest. White on the wings. White bills. The marks matched the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird with no widely accepted North American sighting since 1944. The birds flew off calling. No photograph was taken. What followed was years of searches, a sponsored expedition, mysterious double raps, and an answer that never quite arrived.

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Context

The ivory-billed woodpecker is a real bird, Campephilus principalis. At 19 to 20 inches long, with a wingspan over 30 inches, it was the largest woodpecker in North America. Its last widely accepted sighting there came in 1944.

Sources (26, most influential first)

  1. Glimpse of ivory stirs up woods (Clarion-Ledger reprint) with David Muth email · carolinabirds mailing list (reprint of Clarion-Ledger, Bruce Reid)· 2000-01-30 · Press, book, documentary · news
  2. Report of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Pearl River swamp · BirdWatching (Jerome Jackson) · Press, book, documentary · news
  3. Knock on Wood · Outside· 2002 · Press, book, documentary · news
  4. Faint Hope for Survival of a Woodpecker Fades (NYT repost) · birding-aus (reprint of The New York Times, James Gorman)· 2002-06-10 · Academic / paper of record · news
  5. Oops. Woodpecker raps were actually gunshots · Science News· 2002-06 · Press, book, documentary · news