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Has Everyone heard that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has been rediscovered in Arkansas?
This bird figures heavily in S.E. cosmology and culture.
This is worth looking for!
I’m so glad you posted on this! I’ve been meaning to add this link and you reminded me!
Lord God Bird – Ivory Billed Woodpecker
How special it would be to see one!
Hello Everyone, I have a few minutes so I thought that I’d stop in!
This bird has always been a favorite of mine since I had heard of it years ago, I did not believe that it like many other birds and animals that they were gone, rather they are somewhere.
An old friend of mine once wrote to me that no one or group of people was or is extinct that there are descendants somewhere, just like us.
So I have been meaning to share this; as everyone knows I can weave with river cane splints, and in the old archaeological fragments of cane baskets there is a pattern of this bird, aswell it appears on shell gorgets and several other cultural items.
It’s pretty cool that it’s back!
I think that this old pattern maybe used again as a tribal emblem.
Best To All.!
Would it be archeologically correct for us to use it? And do you have an image of the fragment? I’d love to see it. I love birds, I’ve never gotten into the “Spirit Animal” thing, but if I were, I’d be drawn to a bird.
Hello, well I think that because this birdhas had such a focus in the culture of the southern people that it would be possible for the folks here to use it, it must have had something to do with the winds etc because it is often shown in quadrants.
The pattern that I’ll be using is from the Mounds plantation people of Louisiana , Caddo etc.
Aswell I will try and develope a more artisitic pattern and try to weave it ,In time I’ll have an image or 2 of what I have done.
I once seen a Pileated woodpecker, it’s near cousin , I was taking apart some birch trees to weave woood splint baskets and I had heard this very odd pecking, my old pup sat up and watchedk “chicken” pecking on a dead tree, it’s crest was firey red1
I told a friend about the incident who watches his birds in the back yard he said” where is it ahd where’s the nest ? we need to protect it!” my answer was since no one knows where it is it’s already protected! Just like the Ivory Billed relative, was for 60 years or more even tho’ some folks knew that it was there!
Hello Everyone, well I done a small search on this topic and have found some really neat pictures.
There was one that had 3 stuffed birds in it, these birds have an iridescent green over thier black feathers, really quite interesting since in several sacred color schemes red, black, white and green was shown, these are the colors found on this bird!
Aswell I have been looking for an article called “George Catlin , sometimes right”(sp) in the article it illustartes an Ivory billed wood pecker skin turban, worn by an Osage(?) man.
If someone was to try and make use of this as a part of thier dance clothing etc, a tine from a deer antler would work for the bill of the bird, many methods could be used to reincorporate this bird into the culture which has gone by the way side.
Do a search and check into traditions etc.
More later!
How cool is that? I was reading this since I haven’t had the chance to write Tom or anything. I had no clue this bird was supposedly extinct. In fact, I had no clue what exactly it was so I looked at Patty’s link and I’m going to head out into my woods here with the digital and try to get a photo of these guys. I’m not saying for posetive, but that photo looks a lot like the family that is living in our attic! We have a woodpecker around here that looks (atleast right now) exactly like this photo. They’ve been coming here every summer for atleast the last 3 or 4 years that I’ve been noticing them. I love birds too. Thanks you guys! Love & Light, Lynella.
No, they look really close to the same bird, but somehow they are different. My birdies have something different about their beaks and I don’t know, I don’t think they are as big either.;)
Woodpeckers are very rare here in Western Oklahoma. I was let to believe that they require old growth forests, as they need old wood, or trees that are not in perfect health to begin with, to drill holes in. Since people routiely cut down down dying and dead trees, we destroy the types of tree they require. At least that is what I was told. We don’t have a lot of trees to begin with . . . 🙂
When we were in Va/NC a couple of weeks ago there was this feather on the grownd with with a yellowish/orange vein and a little yellowish/orange color on the side underneath. I asked what kind of bird it was from. we were sittin in a circle around this feather, and had been for a while. Someone (Dreaming Hawk I think) called it some kind of a woodpecker. I recalled the night before hearing a very loud woodpecker so itmight have been from the same bird, altho it looked like it might have been sitting o the gorund a couple of days. Maybe some of us had stepped on it giving it that look, I don’t know. What kind of a woodpecker was that again?
well I am glad to know that Arkansas Woodpecker is not extinct.
vance
‘Lost’ woodpecker means business
By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY
Ever since the revelation in April that the presumed-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker had been spotted in the snake-infested swamps of eastern Arkansas, strange developments have taken flight in the tiny farming hamlets near the bird’s habitat.
The bird is a cash cow: Penny’s Hair Care in Brinkley, Ark., offers haircuts with a special “crest.”
Danny Johnston, AP
Several dozen adventurous souls have submitted their scalps to the gals at Penny’s Hair Care in Brinkley for an elaborate coiffure (mohawk-like crest painted red on top and feathery black and white sides) dubbed the Woodpecker.
At Gene’s Barbecue in Brinkley, the new ivory-billed burger (mozzarella cheese, sesame-seed bun) has been flying off the grill.
Locals and visitors alike are proudly donning a T-shirt emblazoned with a double-entendre. (The front asks: Got Pecker? The back, emblazoned with a likeness of the rare bird, responds: We Do!)
The 20-inch-tall woodpecker whose 3-foot wingspan and distinctive markings gave rise to its moniker, The Lord God Bird (presumably because it elicited gasps of “Lord, God, what a bird!”), hadn’t been glimpsed since 1944. Then, in February 2004, lone kayaker Gene Sperling gazed up among the ancient cypress trees in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge and spotted the creature. He returned with two ornithologists who confirmed the sighting but kept mum about it until a formal announcement was made in late April.
Now, even as state officials and conservationists draft a recovery plan, entrepreneurial types in the towns around Arkansas’ Big Woods region are plotting ways to cash in on woodpecker tourism.
“I like to call this bird the phoenix of eastern Arkansas,” says Jana Greenbaum of Arkansas Parks and Tourism. “The hero is the habitat, but this bird has brought prominence to these communities.”
Witness last month’s annual Big Woods Birding Festival in Clarendon, population 1,960. It drew 2,000 celebrators, compared with only 800 last year.
The town’s Bow-K Florist has added commemorative framed woodpecker prints to its inventory. Nearby, at Creative Graphics, a screen-printed version of artist/naturalist John Audubon’s rendering of the bird is selling on T-shirts, tote bags and visors.
Jim McKnight, AP and Danny Johnston, AP
Birds of a different feather: Heath Childs is preened like the ivory-billed woodpecker.
By September, officials expect to have in place a designated birding trail in the state’s eastern Great River Road area, which runs through the Mississippi Delta and at various times is home to 25% of American bird species. Similar routes in Texas, Florida and Alabama have been successful in drawing avid birders and casual sightseers alike.
The region already has an abundance of hunting lodges, ranging from humble to elaborate, thanks to its seasonal popularity among duck hunters.
Now, local tourism types are hoping those proprietors and hunting guides will expand their repertoires to “bird watching (besides) bird killing,” Greenbaum says. And the Nature Conservancy’s Arkansas chapter is working on a plan to certify local guides because the woodpecker’s habitat is remote and potentially dangerous.
Still, a recent workshop for lodge owners drew only a handful of attendees, says the Nature Conservancy’s Kathy Radomski.
“I think some are overwhelmed and aren’t sure what to do. But there’s interest. They’re looking for that pot of gold.”
Other business folks are less reticent.
“This is a big thing for us,” says Sandra Kemmer, chamber of commerce director in Brinkley, a burg of 4,000 set halfway between Memphis and Little Rock. “We’re expecting people to come just because they’re aware of (the ivory-billed woodpecker).”
Others, like Lisa Boyd, were quick to recognize the profit potential in the big bird brought back from extinction. The owner of Boyd’s Smoke Shack promptly slapped a giant vinyl woodpecker decal on her catering truck, and in what she calls “a brainstorm,” dreamed up the now-infamous Got Pecker? T-shirt design.
“This is a pitiful, poor town,” she says. “If they find an albino cottonmouth, I’m all for it. Whatever puts us on the map.”
Meanwhile, Penny Childs, creative force behind the woodpecker coif, and employee Wanda Ellis will set up temporary shop at the local Wal-Mart on June 11, styling woodpecker hairdos for a church fundraiser.
Says Childs: “We figure we’d better give a little back to the Lord, or he might kill the bird.”
Vance & Patty,
🙂 Hey! Yes I was going to say the Flicker. I LOVE THEM! We have both here in Colo. The Yello Flicker stays mostly out on the plains. In the Cities you’ll find both the Yellow and the Orange, but the Orange Flickers are more common in the cities. The orange ones migrate up here to the mountains for the summers. The males are oh so beautiful! The colored parts of their eyes are deep orange and all underneath they are orange and they have this pretty band across their chest that has deep almost purple spotts across it. They make a real high pitched, one syllable cry, like a whistle and they just repeat the same syllable over and over and when they fly it’s a flap, flap, soar-flap, flap, soar. And when they soar they look almost like a dart. Here they can be ate quite easily by predators such as mountain lions, coyotes, foxes, ect., because they don’t just pick the bugs in the trees, but they feed on the ground as well. I’ve found several that apparently got munched that way. They seem to leave more feathers about than most of the other birds do. When I find one, if it stays there a while and it then feels o.k. to have it, I work them into my medicine wheel. I started it 10 years ago on a really cool woven (Navajo Design, but I think it’s from Mexico) blanket and it hangs on the wall. Each feather I’ve put on there, goes on to represent a loved one (my kids) people I’ve lost over the years, etc. Any way, that’s what i was thinking when I read Vances post. Thank you Vance! Oh yeah, and our Flickers are about the size of a robin plus another half a robin atleast. They’re pretty good sized birds.
Saponi 1,
That is a lot of interesting info. A hair cut????? Yeah, I can see that as a novel Cash Cow! But, I think I’ll keep letting mine grow! I’d look pretty goofy with that big tufty on my head! I can see a lot of pre-teens and really happy go lucky good natured folks doing it! I could see my youngest son having gotten that and dying it fire engine red about 8 years ago when he went through his punk rock stage!
Mozzerella & sessemy seed, or was it poppy seed? Any way, I’d eat that!
Thank you bunches for all that it is really very interesting. My birdies here that I thought resembled those, are also much smaller than those.
Well, I love you guys. Love & Light, Lynella.
I just came across this thread — wasn’t reading the forum, this time last year. Tom, did you ever weave up something with the woodpecker symbol? It’s easier now to post photos… And I was interested in the reference you made to the winds (woodpecker designs found in quadrants). The shell object from the Occaneechi town archaeological site that Linda hit upon (“I think I’ve found our emblem” thread, in Material Culture) is wind-related, as well.
Just as a matter of record, pileated woodpeckers are also called Lord God or Good God woodpeckers (or peckerwoods), in Alabama and parts around there. (Probably because their extremely loud call tends to come from nowhere, and scare you to death — so you say that.) They are supposed to be shy, avoid human habitations etc. However they nest in my back yard, live here year round, have done so for seven years, and for the last four or five have also come to a suet feeder I hang about a hundred feet from the back deck. They do usually stay away from the houses, but if I’m down there raking leaves or something they will come very close to me, say within eight or ten feet (especially if my back is turned). They seem more interested in peanut flavored suet than in personal safety from us dreaded human types.
We also get four other woodpeckers (downy, hairy, red-bellied, and yellow-shafted flicker) at the feeder. I’ve kept a yard list since we moved here, and it’s up to 65 bird species. We are about a mile from the infamous Springfield Interchange, maybe the biggest highway paving project in the eastern US. But there’s still a creek, and big trees, some dead ones — the sort of thing birds like. I think the tenacity of these large and shy birds, hanging on to their little piece of habitat in the face of the most blatant encroachment (by cars, mostly), might have a nice metaphorical kinship with the Saponi (Blackfoot, southeastern Siouan, whatever) story.
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