Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Search Begins Anew

Dec. 2, 2008 -- Last year, Allan Mueller thinks he saw the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker. The wildlife biologist wants to make sure of it this winter.

Mueller plans to head back into the swamps of eastern Arkansas with a scaled-back search team consisting of 26 volunteers and three expert field biologists.

Searchers will begin their work in the Big Woods on Saturday. The campaign will run through the bird's nesting season in March and April when the ivory-bill is most active, Mueller said.

Although three previous searches involved more volunteers, more scientists and more time in the woods, Mueller feels confident he and his team will get results.

"We're going to find a big black and white woodpecker," he says flatly.

WATCH VIDEO: Ivory-billed woodpecker: a magical bird.

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The huge bird was believed to be extinct until a sighting four years ago stirred national experts and federal funding to launch a full-blown campaign to verify the bird's existence and study its habitat.

For want of a clean photograph or audio recordings of the bird's distinctive sounds, searchers have been unable to convince fellow scientists that the bird has survived years of land development and loss of habitat.

Over the last four years, The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, where Mueller is avian conservation manager, along with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Audubon Society have collaborated to study the ivory-bill in Arkansas and enlist other groups to scout potential habitats in other Southern states.