Tapes build ivory-billed woodpecker's case

A stuffed male ivory-billed woodpecker.

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SANTA BARBARA, California (AP) -- Scientists publicly presented recordings of the ivory-billed woodpecker, noting that the tape suggests there might be more than one of the rare bird in an eastern Arkansas swamp.

A group of ornithologists challenged the announcement made in April of the woodpecker's rediscovery.

The ivory-billed was once thought to be extinct until it was spotted in the swamps of southeast Arkansas last year.

Skeptics said blurry videotape of a bird in flight wasn't enough evidence. But many were won over after a team of Cornell University researchers sent doubters several recordings of sounds that suggested the bird's existence.

Wednesday marked the first time the audio was publicly played during the American Ornithologists' Union meeting in Santa Barbara.

"It is the best tangible evidence so far that there could be more than one ivory-bill in the area," Russell Charif, a researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said in a statement.

Scientists said the sounds were similar to ivory bills.

One recording featured a series of distinctive nasally sounds that ivory bills make and another captured an exchange of double-rap sounds, which may indicate two ivory bills communicating with each other.

Since the woodpecker's rediscovery, federal agencies have promised millions to help preserve the bird's eastern Arkansas habitat in and around the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge.

John Fitzpatrick, lab director, said the ornithologists played their recordings of the ivory bill woodpecker and then played recording of related species of woodpeckers in South and Central America for comparison.

Reaction from conference attendees seemed positive, Fitzpatrick said.