An announcement from the National Aviary and Project Principalis:

The National Aviary, along with Project Principalis, is delighted to announce that we have made available to the public the results to date of our search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. A paper titled, “Multiple lines of evidence indicate survival of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana” co-authored by Steven Latta, Mark Michaels, and eight other Project Principalis members and collaborators, can be viewed here. (Supplementary materials are at the upper right.) People who have been close to the search know that this is the result of many years of effort by Project Coyote, followed by several more years of intensive field work by the National Aviary and Project Principalis.

More details are available on the National Aviary’s Project Principalis pages, and there should be some updates soon.

A personal note: Frank Wiley and I met in 2008 and shared a vision. We were about as different as could be culturally, but we found common ground in the ivorybill. Most of all, we both recognized J.J. Kuhn’s importance in the saga and tried to figure out what Kuhn knew. Frank befriended Edith Kuhn Whitehead and made it possible for me to meet her in person shortly before her death. He cared deeply about nature and was generous in helping kids with an interest. He educated me too. He drove me crazy sometimes, and I’m sure the reverse is true. We loved each other like brothers. I wish he were here for this.

It has been a long, hard struggle to reach this point. and I don’t know how things will develop from here. The preprint is already making an impact. I hope it changes the discourse.

This is not a peer-reviewed publication. The peer review process is protracted, and we deemed it better to make these findings public now. It affords an opportunity to receive constructive, scientific feedback while adding to the record. We hope the process will strengthen the paper. The work is ongoing.