Illustration of Imperial Woodpeckers by George F. Sandström

Illustration by George F. Sandström, © Delaware Museum of Natural History

It is my great pleasure to present you with this fantastic illustration of a pair of Imperial Woodpeckers that appears on Plate 84 of Woodpeckers of the World by Lester L. Short, published by the Delaware Museum of Natural History (1982).  

The book is a comprehensive account of the 198 species in the Picidae family that Short recognized, and it includes a total of 101 plates by artist George F. Sandström that portray these species in their natural colors with exquisite details. As Dean Amadon wrote in the preface:

The success of artist George Sandström's labors will be evident to anyone who leafs through the plates. They permit an efficient comparison of woodpeckers, particularly of closely related species, often grouped on the same or in adjacent plates, from all quarters of the globe; they are an integral part of this treatise.

Plates 79 through 84 depict the 11 species within the Campephilus genus. Eventually, I will post all of the illustrations from those plates here, pursuant to permission obtained from the publisher. It seemed fitting to start with the majestic Imperial Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in the world!

Tim Gallagher has a blog devoted to his book on the Imperial Woodpecker here:

Imperial Dreams

Imperial Dreams: Tracking the Imperial Woodpecker Through the Wild Sierra Madre

Originally posted 2/10/13 - backdated to organize posts by topic. 

 

From Amazon.com, we have this description of Tim Gallagher's upcoming book on the Imperial Woodpecker: 

Naturalist Tim Gallagher journeys deep into the savagely beautiful Sierra Madre, home to rich wildlife and other natural treasures—and also to Mexican drug cartels—in a dangerous quest to locate the rarest bird in the world—the possibly extinct Imperial Woodpecker, the largest of all carpinteros. 

The story of his search and travels should be a most interesting read! Fortunately for us, Gallagher has launched a related blog with beautiful photos and commentary that you can visit here:

Imperial Dreams

Le Mégapic-Impérial et Le Mégapic à Bec d’Ivoire

Originally posted  2/26/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Illustration courtesy of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections,

Cornell University Libraries.

   http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ornithology/guide/hillguide16.htm

The magnificent Imperial Woodpecker is depicted in this hand-colored lithograph from French naturalist Alfred Malherbe's four-volume work, Monographie des picidées (1859-1862).  There is another illustration and more information about the work available here at this link.

The largest woodpecker in the world, the female Imperial Woodpecker is shown in full with her tongue extended, contrasted with the male whose crest is red and black.  In the background, male and female Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are depicted in what certainly appears to be an adaptation of John James Audubon's painting of the birds in 1826.

New Study Analyzes Only Known Footage of Vanished Imperial Woodpecker

Originally posted  10/26/11 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

There is big news today as the only film ever found of an Imperial Woodpecker is released in the form of 85 seconds of stunning color movie footage!  The film provides us with a unique look back through time at a species that is presumed to be extinct. 

 Imperial Woodpecker, female

Image by William L. Rhein, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology

At two-feet tall, the magnificent Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico was the largest woodpecker in the world.  It probably became extinct in the late 20th century.  To date, there has been no known photo or film documentation available of this species in life.  But that changes today with the publication of a new paper in the October, 2011 issue of The Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union.

The paper, by lead author Martjan Lammertink along with four Cornell Lab of Ornithology staff members and two Mexican biologists, is entitled Film Documentation of the Probably Extinct Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus Imperialis).   It details the remarkable 16-mm color film of an Imperial Woodpecker shot in 1956 by William L. Rhein, a dentist and amateur ornithologist.  Rhein shot the film with a hand-held camera from the back of a mule while camping in a remote location in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango state, Mexico.

Here is a link where you can view the 85-second color film, download the Auk article, hear Rhein narrate scenes from his 1956 expedition, read about the March 2010 follow up expedition to the film site, and see the painted Imperial Woodpecker cover art that serves as the cover of the current edition of The Auk:

www.birds.cornell.edu/imperialfilm

Although Rhein has been widely attributed with the last sighting record of an Imperial Woodpecker, the existence of his film was not known until recently.  In the mid-1990s, biologist M. Lammertink discovered a mention of the film at Cornell in letters that Rhein and a colleague sent to ivorybill researcher James Tanner in 1962.  He tracked Rhein down and they viewed the film together in 1997.  In 2005 Rhein's nephew, R. Thorpe, donated the film to the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.        

 Imperial Woodpecker, female

Image by William L. Rhein, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology 

Viewing the amazing film footage, you will see a female Imperial Woodpecker hitching up and foraging on the trunks of large Durango pines in its old-growth forest environment before launching into flight.  A March 2010 expedition to the film site gained insights on the bird's probable extinction, but turned up no evidence that Imperial Woodpeckers are still alive.  Unfortunately, the bird and its old-growth forest are gone now, making the film footage an especially precious find.

Tim Gallagher on the Imperial Woodpecker

Read a story about the majestic Imperial Woodpecker.

Read the Full Article

Tim Gallagher is editor-in-chief of Living Bird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's quarterly magazine.  He's also the author of the book "The Grail Bird: The Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" (Houghton Mifflin, July 2005).  For more info on the illustration, see the article or click here.

Imperial Woodpeckers

This rather large image befits the Imperial Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in the world.  According to Wikimedia Commons, this chromolithograph appeared in The Auk in 1898, and the artist was John Livzey Ridgway (1859-1947) an American illustrator and brother of ornithologist Robert Ridgway.  Public domain image.

Imperial Woodpecker, Close Up

Originally posted  8/9/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

I just came across this specimen photo, a close up of a female Imperial Woodpecker head from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and shared with us here by Dysmorodrepanis through Wikimedia Commons.  The largest of all the woodpeckers, the bird you see here is a very old specimen, but spectacular nonetheless.  How much more spectacular would it be to see it in action, live in a pine forest in Mexico today?

Here's a link to a related article from 2003 about a search for the Imperial Woodpecker by BirdLife International that's an interesting read:

Imperial Woodpecker story

Also, here is a more recent post regarding a report of an Imperial Woodpecker sighting in the Copper Canyon in Mexico:

Imperial Woodpecker Reported in Mexico

Imperial Woodpeckers

This is an image of male and female Imperial Woodpecker specimens from the Museum Wiesbaden in Germany. The photographer was Fitz-Geller Grimm, shared with us here by Creative Commons license.

EXTINTOS!

Originally posted 6/17/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

EXTINTOS!!!, a photo by telly gacitúa on Flickr.

Sad but true, as the comments that accompany this beautiful image posted here under Creative Commons license note:

El carpintero Imperial, el zorro Guará, el Tilacino, el pájaro Dodó, el Sapo Dorado de Monteverde, el Bilby Menor, el ciervo de Schomburgk, el Alca Gigante, el Tigre de Java, el Baiji o delfín de río chino, el Barbus Microbarbis y la orquídea extinta.
Llegaron los humanos y los mataron a todos!!!!!

The Imperial Woodpecker, Fox Den, the Thylacine, Dodo bird, the Golden Toad of Monteverde, the Bilby Minor Schomburgk Deer, the Great Auk, the Tiger of Java, the Baiji or Chinese River Dolphin, the Barbus Microbarbis and orchid extinct.
humans came and killed them all !!!!!

La Tête et Le Pied du Megapicus Imperialis

Originally posted 6/13/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this illustration of the head and foot of an Imperial Woodpecker, accompanied by the same for the Black Woodpecker of Europe (Dryocopus martius) for comparative purposes in the preface of Alfred Malherbe's Monographie des Picidées.  The image above is within the public domain and it appears here courtesy of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York.

The Imperial Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in the world, is the subject of an earlier post here at Campephilus Woodpeckers and, appropriately, the subject of the first plate within Monographie des Picidées:

While we're on the topic, recently Mark Michaels made the following post at the Ivory-bill Researchers Forum that will lead you to a rarely seen still from a video of the Imperial Woodpecker that belongs to Cornell University.  He wrote:

This recent publication from Partners in Flight includes a still from the footage of the Imperial Woodpecker on page 11. It should have some relevance for IBWO searchers. Another still appears in Snyder's Travails of Two Woodpeckers, but as far as I know this is the first time any of the images has appeared online.

Find the publication here at this link.

Also, here is a link to the organization's website:  http://www.savingoursharedbirds.org/

To my knowledge, this is the sole imagery available of the Imperial Woodpecker aside from illustrations and images of museum specimens, so it's quite a wonder!

Recovery Plan for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by USFWS

Originally posted 7/18/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Recovery Plan

I thought I'd edit this recent post to announce the release of the Recovery Plan for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.   The direct link to the report is here:

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/100719.pdf

At 168 pages, the report should make for very interesting reading to Ivory-billed Woodpecker, bird and wildlife enthusiasts.  Apparently, you can obtain a hard copy of the report by requesting one from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.


Update
You can find an interesting and thorough discussion of the Recovery Plan over at Ivory-bills Live.  Be sure to read the comments associated with the post at this link, entitled as follows (it's dated July 22, 2010, in case you need that info to find the post):

The Good, the Bad and the Fuzzy...

About the Illustration

The head and bill of a male Ivory-billed Woodpecker appear in this reproduction of a watercolor. The illustration is within the public domain, and it appears in Key to North American Birds, 1903 (5th Edition).  Here is a curious excerpt from that book on the Imperial Woodpecker, and another excerpt on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker:

CAMPE'PHILUS.  IVORY-BILLS.  Containing the largest and most magnificent known Woodpeckers, of several species, peculiar to America.  The Imperial Woodpecker, C. Imperialis, comes in Chihuahua within 50 miles of our border, and will no doubt be found in the mountains of S. Arizona or New Mexico.  It is larger than the Ivory-bill, with no white stripe on the next, and black nasal tufts.  It has been attributed to the U.S., but I have never felt at liberty to use the Key on the lock of futurity. 

IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER.  WHITE-BILLED LOGCOCK.  A large powerful bird of the S. Atlantic and Gulf States, formerly N. to No. Carolina along the coast, to the Ohio river in the interior; range restricted of late years, almost coincident with maritime regions, N. and W. only to portions of S. Car., Ga., Ala., Miss., Ark., and very small part of Texas; still locally common in the dark heavily-wooded swamps, but very wild and wary, difficult to secure.  Nests high in the most inaccessible trees; hole deeps, with oval opening; eggs 3-4, 1.35 X 1.00, in an average, varying moderately, somewhat pointed, highly porcellanous; they are laid early, sometimes even in February, oftenest in March, April, and early in May.

 To find the full book, Key to North American Birds, at Google Books, click here.

A New Book

And from that old book to one that's new and upcoming, we have Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 1935–1941 by Stephen Lynn Bales due out in mid-November.

Here's an excerpt from the book description available at UT Press's site:

Drawing on Tanner’s personal journals and written with the cooperation of his widow, Nancy, Ghost Birds recounts, in fascinating detail, the scientist’s dogged quest for the ivory-bill as he chased down leads in eight southern states.

Read the full book description here!

Magellanic Woodpecker Pair

Magellanic Woodpeckers, originally uploaded by billy3001.

Magellanic Woodpeckers often travel in pairs or small family groups, as do several of its relatives. That's a fortunate thing for the lucky photographer!

HABITS

Cream-backed Woodpecker:  Apparently solitary outside of breeding season
Crimson-bellied Woodpecker:  Usually encountered in pairs or familiesCrimson-crested Woodpecker:  Observed in pairs or small groups
Cuban Ivory-billed Woodpecker:  No notes on it
Guayaquil Woodpecker:  Often met with in pairs
Imperial Woodpecker:  Lives in pairs and in family groups of 3 - 5 (10?) birds
Ivory-billed Woodpecker: No notes, though other sources mention travel in pairs and groups
Magellanic Woodpecker:  Met with singly, in pairs or in groups of 3 - 4
Pale-billed Woodpecker:  Found singly or in pairs
Powerful Woodpecker:  Often encountered in pairs
Red-necked Woodpecker:  Found in pairs or small family parties
Robust Woodpecker:  No notes

Source:   Woodpeckers: A Guide to the Woodpeckers of the World by H. Winkler, D. A. Christie & D. Nurney

Now, close your eyes and imagine seeing 10 live Imperial Woodpeckers at one time!

 

 Photo Info

When we had secured all the birds near camp
another party of five or six [imperials] was found in the hills a mile or so
away, and the Indians told us of other places where they were common.

- E.W. Nelson in The Auk, Vol. XV, No. 3, July 1898