ivory-billed woodpecker

[ahy-vuh-ree-bild wood-pek-er, ahy-vree-]

noun

1. a large, black and white woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, of the southern U.S. and Cuba, with a length of about 20 inches (51 centimeters), an ivory-colored bill that has a uniquely flattened tip, and a prominent crest that is mostly red on the males: dependent on the vast tracts of primeval hardwoods that were deforested with intensity from the mid-19th century, the ivory-billed woodpecker is now classified as possibly extinct.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ivory-billed woodpecker¹

An Americanism dating back to 1805–15

Example Sentences

Cooper writes: “As a Black kid in the 1970s, I was rarer than an ivory-billed woodpecker in the very white world of birding.”

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They continually use their field people and their volunteers to determine, for example, whether the ivory-billed woodpecker is still viable.

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Eleven have been declared extinct, a label proposed for 23 others, including the ivory-billed woodpecker.

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Birding holy grail: Does this video show that the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists?

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His vivid paintings of the ivory-billed woodpecker, American flamingo and hundreds of other species culminated in his seminal “Birds of America,” printed between 1827 and 1838.

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