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Ivory-billed Woodpecker Sounds

Overview
ID info
Life History
Maps
Sounds

Calls (Northern)
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Louisiana, April 09, 1935Recorded by Arthur A. Allen / Macaulay Library

Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.
Listen to more sounds of this species from the ML archive.

Calls

Call is a nasal tooting kent often described as the sound of a “tin trumpet” or of blowing on a clarinet mouthpiece. The call could be given singly or as two notes together, and was often given while feeding. The sound was not nearly as loud as a Pileated Woodpecker’s call, and was estimated to be audible from a quarter-mile away at best.

Other Sounds

The Ivory-bill made a very fast double tap with its bill, with the second tap being slightly quieter than the first, and sounding almost like an echo. The closely related Pale-billed Woodpecker of Central America makes a similar double-tap. It did not have a rolling drum like the Pileated and many other woodpeckers.

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Pileated Woodpecker

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Species in This Family

Woodpeckers(Order: Piciformes, Family: Picidae)

Williamson's Sapsucker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-naped Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Lewis's Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker

Gila Woodpecker

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

American Three-toed Woodpecker

Black-backed Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

White-headed Woodpecker

Arizona Woodpecker

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Gilded Flicker

Browse Species in This Family

More to Read

About the 2004-2009 Search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Bird AcademyBuilt to Peck: How Woodpeckers Avoid Brain Injury
John Lee Hooker, Leonard Bernstein, and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Go to Washington
Living Bird MagazineBook Review: Ghost Birds, by Stephen Lyn Bales
Living Bird MagazineWill We Soon See Another Wave of Bird Extinctions in the Americas?
Living Bird MagazineReturn to Durango: Searching for Mexico's Imperial Woodpecker
Living Bird MagazineView from Sapsucker Woods: What Does the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Mean for Bird Conservation?

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