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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Are ivory-billed woodpeckers extinct? Question ruffles feathers of birders who say it's still alive

An ivory-billed woodpecker specimen is on a display at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. (Haven Daley/AP)
An ivory-billed woodpecker specimen is on a display at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. (Haven Daley/AP)

This spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to declare the long-elusive ivory-billed woodpecker extinct. It’s a move that’s ruffling a lot of feathers in the birder community.

The black and white woodpecker hasn’t been officially sighted since 1944 — but many ornithologists believe that it’s still alive somewhere.

We hear from Kate Wong, senior editor for evolution and ecology at Scientific American.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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