In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

I began reading this book with trepidation. The story of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has had some exciting news over the last few years tempered with some disappointment of no definiative proof or nest site found. After the long quiet period with lack of new sightings in Arkansas there was some excitement about the Choctawatchee River area in northwestern Florida. This has been written about in Geoffrey Hill's excellent book, "Ivorybill Hunters: The Search for Proof in a Flooded Wilderness". My version of "In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" by Jerome Jackson is the updated title with the mention on the cover "Updated after the Controversial Rediscovery!". Jackson was a member of the group that published the rebuttal to the Science article about the Arkansas proof of rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The book is quite interesting and if you like this subject matter you will not be disappointed. I found most of the book hard to put down other than some of the repetitous recounts of old records and the chapter about Ivory-billed Woodpecker trinkets, plates, and references in general literature. I am sure there are people that would be more interested in the historical impact of this bird, I was more interested in it's biology and the opinions of Dr. Jackson on its likelyhood of still existing somewhere in the southeast or Cuba. He did review this in satisfying detail but did not include any comment regarding the new sightings and observations in the Choctawatchee River area. I can highly recommend this book, Dr. Jackson does give us hope that the birds may still be out there. He has perhaps the most knowledge about this species of anyone in the world and he has shared his knowledge and opinions here in a way that everyone can enjoy and understand.

This is a good read for anyone who's interested in the ivory-billed woodpecker. Although it does not have any information about the rediscovery of the bird in Arkansas, Dr. Jackson has spent his entire adult life studying this bird and has some interesting insights. I also just finished reading "The Grail Bird," a brand new book by Tim Gallagher--one of the people who found the bird. It's like a combination detective story and adventure, and is also very funny in parts. I couldn't put it down. Another great book that has a section on the ivory-bill is "Hope is the Thing with Feathers," by Christopher Cokinos, a first-rate writer. If you're truly interested in learning more about this species, I highly recommend reading all three books.

Just to make a correction to the review written below. The author of this tale is Jackson, not Tanner. Tanner did indeed see and record the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

Jerome Jackson's lifetime of study of, and search for, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers has been distilled into this fine volume. He believes (and certainly hopes!) that a few Ivorybills have managed to survive, unlikely as that seems. In this book, he gives a detailed picture of what we know of Ivorybill biology, as well as an idea of the many questions that persist. He also describes very well the decline of Ivorybills, which he attributes largely to habitat loss. Early ornithologists who saw, collected, painted, and photographed the birds are given life in these pages. Finally, Jackson describes his own careful searches for the bird, both in the southern US, as well as in Cuba: he just may have encountered Ivorybills, but the fleeting encounters are frustrating. I certainly recommend this book to those interested in birds, or endangered and extinct species, and wildlife in general.