Ivory-billed Woodpecker Similar Species Comparison

Main SpeciesIvory-billed Woodpecker

Male

Very large woodpecker with heavy, straight, pale bill. White lines down black back, with large white panels showing in the folded wings. Males had a red crest.

Female

Very large woodpecker with heavy, straight, pale bill. White lines down black back, with large white panels showing in the folded wings. Females had a black crest.

Adult male and female

Pairs worked together to excavate nest holes, and typically used a different nest hole each year.

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Male

Very large woodpecker with heavy, straight, pale bill. White lines down black back, with large white panels showing in the folded wings. Males had a red crest.

Male

Occurred in extensive stands of large trees, particularly in and around swamps. Fed on beetle larvae in recently dead trees and excavated large, oval holes for nesting.

Adult male

Very large woodpecker with heavy bill; moved quickly and forcefully by hitching along trunks. This video (which has no sound) was recorded from the species' last stronghold, in Lousiana, in the 1930s.

Not all videos have sound

Similar SpeciesPileated Woodpecker

Male

Pileated Woodpeckers have a smaller, dark or silvery bill than Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. They also have a white (not black) throat. A perched pileated lacks the large white back of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.

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