Original subtitles

So I just landed in Tanzania after 20 hours of flying. On my way back to

Zanzibar to look for evidence of the leopard.

Here with my wife, Jess.

She's annoyed.

And the first thing I do when I get in is decide to check my email. And it's

really interesting because the first email that pops up is an email from this

guy named Mike. And he claims to have evidence of the ongoing existence of an

extinct bird. And not just any bird, the holy grail of extinct birds. The ivory

-billed woodpecker.

So look at this video.

Boom.

Yeah.

Watch this.

It's definitely a woodpecker. But he says that he called this bird in by

the only known ivory -billed woodpecker call on Earth. And no other bird could

respond to that.

Every single year, as many as 2 ,000 species are deemed extinct worldwide.

But the process we use to declare an animal extinct is an inexact science.

It happens all the time.

Animals are rediscovered that were thought to be gone forever.

My grandfather discovered a coelacanth 66 million years after it was supposed

be extinct.

I'm Forrest Galante. I'm a wildlife biologist, and my life's work is

for animals that we've given up on.

On this expedition, I'm attempting what may be my greatest challenge yet.

Definitive proof of the famously reclusive ivory -billed woodpecker.

Positively IDing a flying species is difficult enough.

But we'll also be invading the territory of endless predators lurking in the

deadly swampland of Louisiana.

This is no bird -watching trip.

I'm going to have to test myself physically and come up with some

tactics to find if the slew of recent sightings hold any water. That's insane.

This is Extinct or Alive, the ivory -billed woodpecker.

Here's a weird thing to say.

Louisiana has always reminded me of my home in the southern African nation of

Zimbabwe.

There's an abundance of life and energy like I experienced growing up in the

bush.

And while the people and terrain are different, one similarity stands out.

Deadly predators.

I grew up knowing they were always lurking just beyond our daily routine.

And it's no different here in the American Bayou.

Copperheads. cottonmouths and rattlers, brown recluse and black widow spiders,

and of course, gators.

Yet people live every day with a respect for these animals, knowing they're

often within striking distance.

Ironically, these deadly predators may have unknowingly become the perfect

bodyguard for the holy grail of birdwatchers everywhere, myself

If the ivory -billed woodpecker is still alive, The man -eaters that fill the

habitat in the brutal terrain could explain how it's avoided detection.

At 20 inches tall, with a wingspan of 3 feet, the Ivory -billed woodpecker was

the largest woodpecker in North America.

So large that a mating pair needed 10 square miles for themselves just to find

enough food to survive.

Their supposed extinction is mostly the result of deforestation, and records

show the last known ivory bill died in 1944.

Jump ahead to 2004, and suddenly dozens of sightings are reported.

I'm heading straight to the source of the video I received from a fan of the

show.

The footage is compelling, but it was filmed in the suburbs, and this bird was

known for being reclusive.

So it's not exactly the area I'd expect to find one on first glance.

The ivory -billed woodpecker, even when abundant, is an animal that's next to

impossible to capture footage of. All of the video evidence that does exist is

basically a black speck darting through the woods. So the goal on this

expedition is to get something conclusive to say that the ivory -billed

woodpecker is indeed still down here in the southern United States.

But I'm excited to meet Mike either way.

He's an avid birder, and he sounds very convinced.

This is the place where you saw the bird, right?

Absolutely. It's actually about the size of a red -tailed hawk. That big?

And one of my friends told me, man, that could be an ivory -billed woodpecker.

No kidding. So I started researching it a little bit, and I found the call on

YouTube. So my sophisticated setup was an iPad and a Bluetooth speaker box.

And as soon as I played it...

I saw a woodpecker coming from the back of the property, flew to the front of

the property, and landed right there at that hole. No way. That's the video that

I sent you. And when it flew off, could you see white on the underside of the

wing? Definitely. Definitely saw white. 100%. Unmistakably saw white.

While famous for its white or ivory bill, it's actually the white plumage

running along the underwing that most easily distinguishes it from other

woodpeckers.

And that's what we're looking for.

There's a hole.

But what's really fascinating is at the top of the tree, it looks like the

bark's been peeled back. You see how there's that kind of big hole on the

-hand side? Yeah. That is characteristic of an ivory -billed woodpecker.

A pileated woodpecker drills holes to get into the grubs, whereas the ivory

-billed would actually peel the bark back. And if you see at the very top of

that tree, the bark has been peeled back.

Huh.

Awesome. Yeah.

But it looks like nobody's home today.

Tons of sightings are reported of the ivory -billed woodpecker, but there is a

very close look -alike woodpecker in the area called a pileated woodpecker. Now,

the difference between a pileated and an ivory bill is that the pileated is

slightly smaller, it has dark wings without white on them, and it has a dark

bill and eye. But aside from those minor characteristics, it's very hard to tell

the two apart.

Mike said that the first time he saw the bird, he was sitting back here in his

tree stand hunting, so...

I'm going to go up in it and play the call the same way he did and just see if

anything responds. Might as well.

The enormous woodpecker with the pure white bill has become many a birder's

great white whale, celebrated in songs, on license plates, and with nicknames

like Holy Grail Bird or Elvis in Feathers.

It's truly reached rock star status.

So much so.

that numerous individuals and nature conservancies have offered huge cash

rewards for anyone who can prove they've found a living one.

Dating back to 1935, this is the only known recording of the ivory bill's

distinct call.

out into the woods, hoping any bird in the area, any ivory bill, would come in

to investigate.

While I wait for an ivory bill to respond to my 83 -year -old recording,

team has a camera trained on the nest over by Mike's house.

Guess who gets lucky first?

Mitch, can Bogey see a woodpecker?

That what?

There's two woodpeckers right here.

Oh, okay.

That's crazy.

They've seen a nest, and they're staring at two woodpeckers right now. We've got

to go see.

If we found an ivory -billed woodpecker on day one, the rest of this expedition

is going to be partying in downtown New Orleans.

Coming up.

I just landed in Louisiana in search of the ivory -billed woodpecker, and

remarkably, my crew thinks they've already spotted one.

Oh, yeah, look at him there.

It is really beautiful.

But those are red -bellied woodpeckers.

I had a feeling it was too good to be true.

We're looking at the much smaller red -bellied woodpecker.

It's a common breed found all over the U .S.

Maybe there was an ivory -billed woodpecker here six months ago, but now

redbelly has clearly taken residence.

But I think that kind of means a dead end for our lead here, I'm afraid.

Yeah.

Luckily, Mike's video wasn't the only piece of evidence that brought me to

Louisiana.

This animal is very unknown to science. It's extremely elusive.

There's really not a harder -to -study bird in North America.

So today I'm meeting up with Michael Collins. Now, Michael is arguably the

world's leading authority on the ivory -billed woodpecker. And on top of that,

he's a naval researcher.

From right here in the Pearl River where we're meeting, he has what he considers

definitive proof.

of the ongoing existence of the ivory billed woodpecker and i'm very excited

what he has to show me so 2006

2007 and 2008 those are all different sightings that you've had right right

so what i'm seeing here is these are frame grabs from your video And the tree

has these two forks, which made it possible to scale the image of the tree

a pileated woodpecker specimen mounted on it.

Michael captured a photo of what he believes to be an ivory -billed

Being a scientist, he recreated the photo using the same tree with a stuffed

pileated woodpecker. And lo and behold, it's clear that the live bird he saw was

larger than a pileated.

A good sign that it could be the ivory bill.

But this isn't the only sighting you've had, correct? No, this was my fifth

sighting that week, the sixth sighting of ten sightings overall.

Fifth sighting that week? Yes, yes.

During my second year of field work, I didn't have any sightings, and I had to

start thinking of new ideas to find these birds. And one of the ideas I got

to climb up into these tall trees.

And I noticed up the bayou, it looked like a very fast -flying bird.

As it just about got underneath, I saw the white stripes on the back.

Now, I'm guessing with your mathematical background, you measured the speed at

which this was. Right. It's like 15 .2 meters per second, and the pileated

flight speed ranges between 8 and 11 point something. Four meters per second.

Something on that, yeah.

So you're 100 % convinced that that's an ivory whale? Absolutely.

Michael has studied this bird for 20 years, and he seems like a credible

witness. So even though the video isn't definitive, I still want to see the

exact tree where he filmed the large bird.

It's been estimated that ivory -billed woodpeckers can live upwards of 30

This was 10 years ago that Michael had the sighting. So if those birds are

living in that area, around that tree, that same animal may be captured on our

trail cameras.

Gosh, the bayou is high.

Here's the tree right here. This one right here? Yep.

Yeah, you're up there. That's, what, 75, 80 feet? 75.

And the bird flew right up here.

So when Michael had his sighting here, he was 75 feet up in the tree, and the

bird flew by him, you know, beneath him, six feet off the water.

I don't have the ability to move from six feet to 75 feet back, but Mitchell

does with the drone.

So the plan is to use the, you know, evident highway, the only open area

to try and flush a bird out using the noise of the drone. Really, it's a long

shot, but it's worth doing because we know 10 years ago there was a bird right

here.

Michael, you want to come see what we see on the drone? Yeah.

You hear that?

There's a bird already calling an alarm to the drone.

Beautiful. That's great.

Do you want to go higher? Yep.

Holy smoke.

That's a lot of turkey vultures.

Good God.

There must be a lot of food source for them out here.

We do a pass with the drone.

Plenty of birds, but no large woodpeckers.

I did not bring a change of clothes with me, but I'm not willing to forego this

opportunity to put some trail cameras up right where Michael had a sighting.

What that means is I'm going to head into the swamp.

However, I don't really want to get my only dry pair of clothes with me soaking

wet. So, Mike,

my eyes are up here. Remember that?

Mike, are there alligators in here?

None over 15 feet long. Great.

I'm not getting my boxers wet either, just so you guys know. I've got to walk

around in this the rest of the day.

Oh,

that is so muddy.

I'm trying hard not to think about what's squishing between my toes right

Not to mention the unrestricted access I'm giving to any hungry swamp leeches.

But my goal is to set this camera low, just six feet off the water, exactly

where the bird was flying on Michael's video.

So we all know what trail cam... I definitely thought that was an

the way. But the idea is I'm going to set these cameras out here.

I'm going to turn them on. They're motion activated.

And any bird swooping through within about 25, 30 feet of this camera will be

picked up on this.

When I did this, it was in February.

I'm glad it's not February.

And I am getting out of here.

Michael's research commitment won't allow him the time to join us for this

expedition. So I'm hoping to take full advantage of what little time I have

with him. Do you have any kind of advice as I continue on?

These birds, they don't want to be anywhere near people. They go into the

remote areas in a habitat, and as soon as anybody gets near them, they're gone.

The best thing to do is just go further, get deeper, get away from civilization.

Try to get into the most remote areas you can and just spend a lot of time

there.

Michael's been looking for the ivory bill for 20 years, and he still doesn't

have definitive video evidence.

We have a little less time than that.

So my best bet is to take his advice to the extreme by getting as remote as

possible. And I found just the captain to take me deep into the bayou. Hey,

Arthur. Ready for your cajun limo?

My plan is to get in further than you've ever gone, so I hope you're ready for a

long ride.

All right. And then we got another boat coming for the canoe?

Yeah, to get that boat coming for the canoe.

Watch yourself, I guess.

I'm settling in for a long ride, but keeping my eyes open for any places an

ivory bill could be hiding.

The ivory bill was known to live in old -growth swamps, nesting high in the

cypress trees so they could survey the large feeding area they needed to

survive.

Trees just like this one. That's an amazing -looking nesting site. I'd like

climb up and peek in there.

You can see this big hole here in the side of the tree. It's got an overhang

that looks out over the swamp. I mean, it's just a perfect nesting site. So my

instinct tells me to go check it out. So I'm going to climb up there and see

what's up there.

That zap's a little sticky in that tree.

The potential nesting site is about 35 feet off the ground, and my climbing

is on the other boat, which is about 20 minutes behind us.

So much for my fear of heights.

All these branches are dead, too.

This isn't very good for climbing.

Look at this.

Deep in the bayou of Louisiana, I've just scaled this tall, dying tree to

this nest hole for any clues that could prove the existence of the allegedly

extinct ivory -billed woodpecker.

Look at this.

Told you I had an instinct for this.

These eggs could have been here for ten or more years.

Ivory -billed woodpecker eggs are relatively white in color, and these are

darker, but they could be stained darker with age.

Sadly, they're old and crushed, but they look to be between 2 and 3 centimeters

wide.

Look at these.

They're the right size for a big woodpecker. The plan now would be to

back with me and get them genetically tested to see if they do match with

-billed woodpecker DNA.

I certainly can't tell from a field look whether they are or they aren't.

But I can tell you they're the right size in the right habitat.

We're well past sunset, and we're running out of passable routes for our

fan boat through this dense swamp.

We'll take the canoes from here, and guys, get your stuff. We'll look for

somewhere to make camp.

The plan was not to be out here this late, but we wanted to just go as far as

can. And, you know, this is kind of it. We bought right up again.

You guys see that? Look at this right here. Look.

That's insane.

That's an Asian water buffalo.

This is an animal that's 4 ,000 miles outside of its range. It's an animal

native to Southeast Asia.

An incredible find.

Look at that slate blue color.

Originally from China, the Asian water buffalo is well adapted to swamp life.

with their short legs and stocky bodies.

And while this loner might be far from home, there's more than enough for him

eat.

I'm guessing that it belonged to some private piece of property or a zoo and

Katrina or one of those big hurricanes came through and just blew it down and

this animal escaped and I guess he's just living out here on all of this

vegetation.

That's crazy.

The airboat got us about 40 miles from the nearest human.

Now, the entire crew and I are heading even deeper into the bayou on canoes to

make camp for the night.

I'm feeling pretty good about the pristine habitat here. In the morning,

change tactics and work on luring an ivory bill into me.

This morning, I've got a plan to create an irresistible lure using an ivory

-billed woodpecker decoy. It's cool, right? Yeah. That is the exact size of a

male ivory -billed woodpecker.

So here's what I got.

Oh, my God, it's tiny.

Yeah. It's like a spy cam. And it's motion -activated, so to just trigger

record whatever is there.

Mitch is carving out a small cavity in our decoy to install the camera,

his knife skills are highly suspect. You are going to cut yourself.

So other than the now missing chest cavity, this is very much so what an

-billed woodpecker would look like. You see the red comb here, that indicates

it's a male. The white going all the way down the back. If this was a pileated

woodpecker, the white would end here on the neck, where the name comes from,

ivory bill. You can see the ivory -colored bill, also unique to this

the light -colored eye. So the idea is we're going to put that high up in a

tree, where an ivory -billed woodpecker would be living.

and play a male mating call sound. If there's a male in the area, he might

in and be aggressive towards the decoy. If there's a female, she might come in

to attempt to mate with it.

And if that happens, I have this amazing little camera here, and that'll be

clear, definitive proof of an ivory -billed woodpecker.

All right.

That looks great.

That's it right there.

The decoy turned out perfectly, and now I just need to find the perfect tree to

put it in.

I just hit an alligator right here.

These swamplands are so thick with predators that my oar just brushed

one. Hey Mitch, this looks like a good spot to climb.

I selected this tree because this whole area is a cypress swamp that butts up

against... open savannah grasslands, and a lot of water, what we have is the

ability for sound to travel a lot further.

So if the sound can travel further, in theory, an ivory -billed woodpecker can

hear it from further and travel from a further distance.

Once I get to the top, I'm going to set out the decoy, and we'll see what we

get.

Okay, climbing up to give it a shot.

All right.

Trunk's so slick here.

Beautiful spot, and I think right here looks like a good home for an ivory

-billed woodpecker.

Let's go along with him, my acorn speaker.

The decoyed camera will only record when it detects motion.

Hit play on that.

And we'll see if anybody comes into play.

As we head back to camp, I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for any traces of the

ivory bill, and there are signs we may not be as far from human influence as I

thought. This looks like trash, but it's anything but trash.

You can see this jug line.

There's nothing on it.

It runs to a giant hook, a piece of chicken on it, and this is from a

This is a no -fishing area.

And these hooks do not discriminate.

You know, it's that kind of thing that led to the woodpecker's demise. People

not caring about the habitat, not paying attention to laws.

So I'm going to take all of these.

In my search for the most famous allegedly extinct bird in North America,

ivory -billed woodpecker, I thought I'd gotten deep enough into the bayou to get

away from human impact.

But as I was destroying some poachers' bait traps, I spotted something moving

nearby. Look out, look out.

Look, look, look, look, look.

It's an alligator snapping turtle.

This is a huge animal.

And lifting it this way should keep those powerful jaws away from me while

harming the turtle.

You can see where they get the name alligator snapping turtle from.

There's three big ridges on the back here.

Looks just like an alligator.

These turtles frighten the locals more than the gators do. Because if those

get a hold of your foot, they're keeping it.

And this animal could easily be 150 years old.

He's about to go over there, end up eating that chicken, and be killed by a

poacher.

If he stays here, it feels as good as done.

I'm going to get him out of here.

It's really hard on them when they're fished.

And these guys have been fished in Louisiana for decades.

Just a beautiful animal. Look at him.

There we go.

There's a boy.

That's fantastic.

I take the turtle a couple hours downriver to make sure he's far away

poaching activity.

All right, buddy.

This looks like a much better spot for you.

Good Lord, you're heavy.

There we go, beauty.

Go on, off you go.

I want to be the last human this guy sees for the rest of his life.

That's really fantastic.

Hopefully, our vulnerable turtle can go on to live another hundred years and

make lots more babies.

But now, I've got to get back to the task at hand, luring in an allegedly

extinct bird.

Time to try something a little different.

What I want to do is make sure that I'm in a habitat that has ample prey

for an ivory -billed woodpecker.

So I'm creating...

what's called a bug sheet.

And the idea is by running a big white bed sheet like this and projecting onto

it some black light, I'm going to create a light frequency that's irresistible

to nocturnal beetles.

And if there's wood -boring beetles, it means that I'm in an area that has the

right habitat for ivory -billed woodpeckers.

Once I see all these beetles, my plan is to put them into an irresistible

Sue it.

With a specialized bird food, hopefully I'll get a specialized bird, the ivory

-billed woodpecker.

I'm giving the bug sheep a few hours to work its magic, and as you can see, the

bedbugs are biting.

Definitely worked.

Big hawkmoths here.

The amazing wing shape that they have kind of looks like a bird of prey.

But these are the coupe de gras right here.

This is a longhorn beetle, and these guys can give you a really good bite.

That's why you hold them back like that.

They really do give you a good bite.

I just breathed one in.

All right, see that right there?

It's a jar full of live woodpecker bait.

Now, to make these truly irresistible to an ivory bill,

I'm going to have to put my chef skills to the test.

I have a bunch of ingredients.

First off are my beetles collected from last night, mealworms, birdseed,

peanut butter, a mixture of oats and cornmeal, sugar and flour, and the final

ingredient, best found in the South, lard.

So, welcome to Cooking in the Forest with Forrest.

Start with our lard.

Lard. My flour and sugar mix.

Hmm.

Now, peanut butter is an awesome high source of protein and fat for all

And chunky, of course, because if you like smooth peanut butter, there's

something really wrong with you.

Now, the next thing we want to do is add in our beetles that we collected last

night. Oop, little biter.

A nice sprinkling of bird seed and mealworms.

Mealworms are a great source of protein, not just for animals, but for people.

Millions of people have bird feeders out, and nobody's ever had an ivory

woodpecker come and visit one. But nobody has ever made an in -the -bush,

-billed woodpecker targeted bird feeder using wood -boring beetles.

Go on.

Go on.

How's that?

It's not good.

Well, that cooled and binds up.

I am going to go and get a rotten log, and then I'm going to make the natural

-looking bird feeders.

I load the suet into some bird feeders made from fallen log.

That right there is my ivory -billed woodpecker feeder.

Now all I have to do is make about six more.

Look right behind you here. There's a beautiful swamp chestnut tree right

It's the biggest tree around, so this might be the perfect tree to set some

lines, get the suit up there.

I am no fan of height, so I suggest that Mitch goes up first to, you know, get

the camera up in the tree to film my amazing ascent.

Mitch, if you feel any better, you're barely off the ground.

The tree has holes in it from a woodpecker.

It's the biggest tree in the area.

I couldn't think of a better ivory -billed habitat.

Ah, I'm exhausted.

We are right in each other's faces, huh?

All right.

What if I go like that?

There you go, Mitch. No falling now.

Okay, Mitch, why don't you head down?

I think I'm just going to sit up here and spot until the sun goes down and see

if I catch any glimpses of any woodpeckers going into the canopy.

Copy that.

Coming up.

Guys,

come and look at this.

That's a woodpecker. Follow it, follow it, follow it, follow it.

I'm in the Louisiana Bight searching for the ivory -billed woodpecker, and we

spent eight days laying out over 40 motion -sensing trail cameras, including

decoy woodpecker and my homemade ivory -billed bird feeders.

Each of these active sites increase our chance of a sighting, but while I'm out

here in the wild, what I really want to see is something in the flesh.

He's a bit stinky.

He wants to go.

So we're pushing even deeper.

But the swamp is only getting thicker.

Uh -oh.

And the line between river and bank is getting blurred.

Watch the head. Watch the head.

It's a big, healthy water moccasin.

Oh, look at that beauty.

But don't let that pretty face fool you. This is a deadly pit viper, also known

as the cottonmouth. It's the only venomous water snake in North America.

One bite injects highly toxic venom that actually destroys tissue, meaning it

often leads to amputations or kills you.

We're truly in no man's land now.

The thick swamp hasn't felt human footprints in many lifetimes.

I knew this trek was going to be hard, but having abandoned the fan boats and

now the canoes, it's proving to be nearly impossible.

It's exactly the kind of environment expert Michael Collins directed me for.

This is a perfect habitat for the ivory -billed woodpecker to survive,

undetected by man.

There's a woodpecker right there.

Let's get the drone up.

There he goes.

If we chase after him, I don't think we're going to see him again, so I want

put the drone up through this clearing.

Just try and follow it, see if we can get a good shot of it.

I mean, just stay in the treetops.

Just goes to show you why these birds are so hard to find. I mean, that's a

this big that flew off the stump right here 40 yards away and instantly

vanishes.

There he is. That's a woodpecker. Follow it, follow it, follow it, follow it.

Where is that? Do you have a GPS? We are just under a mile right now.

How's that for a defense system?

Already almost a mile away.

And we'd never know where without the drone. What direction?

That way.

It's just under a mile away, which in a swampy terrain like this could be a

couple hours.

I mean, it's soupy, it's very slow going, but it's not a lead worth

I've started the long trek towards the woodpecker I spotted, praying that it

stays in that area.

As we trudge through the swamp, my producer captures a video of something

intriguing on his phone.

Our executive producer, Patrick, gets this video of a giant woodpecker clear

day. And you can see as the sun hits it, you see the white bill right there,

which is definitive proof of an ivory -billed woodpecker.

This sure looks like proof of one of the most famous allegedly extinct species

on Earth. But further examination reveals a new detail. As he flies away,

get the wing spread right there. See that?

And there's no white band on the underside of the wing.

It is actually a pileated woodpecker.

So what that meant was a bit of sun flare hit the bill and put off a white

light.

As we saw with Mike Cangalosi, it can be very easy to convince yourself you've

spotted an ivory bill.

Something to keep in mind as we continue our slog through the swamp in pursuit

of the woodpecker I spotted.

What do we have here?

Aha!

These guys are really cool.

widespread common turtle. Their name is a musk turtle, but they get the common

name stinkbot because they let out a musk that is just absolutely revolting.

Oh yeah, he let off.

That putrid smell is enough to keep any predator at bay.

Predator just like Mitch over here. Have a whiff.

Would you eat that?

No. No, I wouldn't eat that either. And neither would a raccoon or something

when he puts that off.

I'm going to put Stinky back.

Let him continue on.

Coming up.

Definitely the big woodpecker that I saw on the ground.

Oh, that's pretty interesting.

We are in the Louisiana Bayou.

closing in on a woodpecker that's larger than any others we've seen on this

expedition.

So we just tracked down this bird, and it's definitely the big woodpecker that

first spotted and then I saw from the drone.

He is a giant woodpecker.

But sadly, it's not an ivory bill. It's just an abnormally large billiard.

The bill is clearly black and no white band under the wings.

While I do believe there's enough suitable habitat here to support ivory

I've exhausted all my leads on foot.

So I need to collect all those trail cameras and see if they've had any more

luck than I have.

I've got all my cameras back, including my decoy cam.

And I'm going to start looking through some of the footage.

With nearly 40 trail cameras to review, this could take some time.

First, our special suet feeder cameras.

Oh, beautiful.

Got a little blackbird here calling.

A lot of blackbirds stopped by, but no ivory bill.

At least someone appreciated my recipe.

Now to have a look at our woodpecker cam.

See how that did.

I'm really hoping that this little camera right here has the proof that

been looking for.

See how we do.

Oh, that's pretty interesting.

So this clip starts with a flash, and I've got a freeze frame of it right

and all you can see is a belly and a wing.

And the belly in the wing is clearly black and white.

The white lining the bottom of the wing effectively rules out the pileated

woodpecker. What that indicates to me is something came in and hit this and

attacked it and then flew away.

There's only two things that should attack an ivory -billed woodpecker.

One is a very large bird of prey, which this is clearly not based on the wing

structure. The other is a rival ivory -billed woodpecker.

It's not detailed enough to be definitive.

But this could possibly be footage of the Holy Grail bird itself.

I don't know what else would attack a decoy ivory -billed woodpecker other

an ivory -billed woodpecker.

Habitat destruction has negative consequences, such as losing a bird that

to live in these forests just because we cut them down.

I started this search for the ivory bill.

reflecting on how Louisiana reminds me of my home in Zimbabwe.

But as we've traveled deeper into the bayou, my eyes have been opened to an

ecological rebirth like I've never seen in the world.

There's mammals, possums, raccoons, gunks, deer, foxes, all kinds of

We've seen dozens of snakes, gators everywhere you can go. And the skies and

trees are filled with birds and life here.

I cannot say definitively.

whether or not the ivory -billed woodpecker is extinct or alive.

We had a flash sighting on our camera. We heard a call from a distance.

All of these little things, the same things that Michael Collins has heard

seen over 20 years, inspire hope and inspire the belief that the ivory

woodpecker is still out here.

I didn't find definitive proof.

But based on the habitat that's making a huge comeback, Michael Collins

sighting. and just how unbelievably hard it is to capture evidence of a

reclusive bird.

In my heart, I believe the ivory -billed woodpecker is still alive, and I hope

the definitive proof is just around the corner.