In preparing a book on the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker in Louisiana, Steinberg ran down many of the reported sightings. Local hunters and fishers are also the most likely to brave the mosquitoes, alligators, snakes, and prickly palmettos of the birds’ favored environment. “These people are often far more familiar with the sights and sounds of deep swamps than academics or birders who seldom venture into southern bayous,” he says. What really ruffles Steinberg’s feathers is the marginalization of locals who report glimpsing the elusive woodpecker. But because “the ivory-bill is the Holy Grail among birders,” and because millions in federal money for conservation efforts hang in the balance, the debate stirs deep passions among both ornithologists and rural residents such as Steinberg’s neighbor who, after a few drinks, often threatens to “go into the swamp and ‘find that damn bird.’ ”
![ghost bird ghost bird](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U2s3qdEkUlo/UKry0Z5LBvI/AAAAAAAANyE/wwpVpcb1Zfo/s1600/Love+Birds+Wallpapers.jpg)
Such disputes are frequent in the scientific world. But skeptics have questioned whether the video shows the famous bird or its common, similar-looking relative, the pileated woodpecker. “Few die-hards seem capable of believing that anybody else-whether a knowledgeable outdoors person or even a respected ornithologist-could actually see or hear an ivory-bill.” So when a team of scientists declared in 2005 that they had laid eyes on an ivory-bill in eastern Arkansas, and produced a fuzzy 11-second video as evidence, there was much rejoicing about this “official” sighting.
![ghost bird ghost bird](https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/angrybirdsfanon/images/1/17/Spooky.jpg)
Steinberg, a geographer at the University of Alabama. Over the years, bird experts and rural residents reported occasional sightings, but their claims were ridiculed, writes Michael K. The last documented sightings were in the 1940s.
![ghost bird ghost bird](https://baynature.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/hummingbird-opening-shotv2-1.jpg)
But relentless hunting and the disappearance of the ivory-bill’s habitat in southern bottomland forests took their toll. John James Audubon compared the beauty of its stunning plumage and prominent bill to the works of Flemish painter Anthony Vandyke, and it inspired writers such as William Faulkner and Walker Percy. The ivory-billed woodpecker has fascinated the public since Native Americans used the bird’s skins to carry medicine bundles and traded its remains as far north as Canada.