These images are from a Reconyx game camera that was deployed in a single location for approximately ten weeks. The camera was programmed to take a photograph every 30 seconds, beginning approximately 15 minutes prior to sunrise, until 10:30 am, timing out but remaining in motion sensor mode until 3:00 pm, and then to run in time lapse mode once again, snapping a photo every 30 seconds until approximately 15 minutes after sunset.

During this ten-week deployment, several suggestive but inconclusive images were captured. In our view, the image discussed here is the best one we have obtained to date. The heavily scaled honey locust in the foreground was the target tree. This is the tree that Michaels and I were staking out on the morning of Michaels’ November 25, 2009 sighting. I heard wing beats but did not see the bird.

The first image was taken on 11-30-2009. It shows a large bird perched in the manner of a woodpecker in a crotch of a tree adjacent to the heavily scaled honey locust that was the main target:

(Note that full resolution versions of the first four images can be seen by clicking on them. Enlarging the pages in your browser may make it easier to examine the raw Reconyx images.)

This is the same frame, with a red box surrounding the bird of unknown species:

The following photograph of a Pileated Woodpecker was taken in the same location, on 12-29-2009. The pileated is in the same tree, second crotch up, approximately the same distance from the camera as the bird in the first image. Thus, it provides a baseline for size comparison: 

The same frame with a red box added to simplify finding the bird:

The following two photos have been cropped and resized identically using Paint.net. By using the rulers on the top and left side of the Paint.net canvas, it is possible to count the number of pixels and compare the height of the two birds. 

 

The measurements show the Pileated Woodpecker to be 100 pixels in height. The unknown bird is 140 pixels in height (excluding the crest). Thus, 100/140 = 0.71. This means the unknown bird is approximately 29 percent larger than the Pileated Woodpecker.

The next capture (once again cropped using Paint.net) was taken 30 seconds prior to the one showing the unknown bird.

 

The next photo is cropped identically to the preceding one, once again using Paint.net. Toggling back and forth between these photos makes it clear which features are bird, and which are foreground or background.

The final image was re-cropped, resized, and run through an enhancement program called Topaz. Using the advanced capabilities of this program, Bill Benish was able to tease out details that are not as apparent in the unprocessed photos.

The authors of this website are fully aware that this image is not of sufficient quality to prove that the unknown bird is an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. At this juncture, any single image can and should be treated skeptically and scrutinized carefully. Nevertheless, we believe that we can safely state the following:

1. The unknown bird is perched on the tree in the manner of a woodpecker.

2. The unknown bird is 25 to 30 percent (allowing for any errors in measurement and discrepancies due to differences in posture) larger than a Pileated Woodpecker.

3. When zoomed, the otherwise unedited photo shows the unknown bird to have a robust, light-colored bill. 

4. When zoomed, the otherwise unedited photo shows the unknown bird to have a somewhat recurved and bushy crest, one that shows no trace of red. In the photo of the Pileated Woodpecker taken from approximately the same distance, the red crest is clearly visible. In the image of the unknown bird and in the photo thirty seconds earlier, several shades of red are quite visible in the late fall foliage. Given the prevailing lighting conditions, if there were any red in the unknown bird's crest, it should be apparent. Since this is not the case, and the crest appears to match the black body of the bird, the only reasonable conclusion is that the unknown bird has a black crest. This should eliminate Pileated Woodpecker from consideration as a possible identification of the unknown bird. 

5. The unedited image shows the unknown bird to have a white shield that is consistent with known images of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. This is more easily seen in the Topaz enhancement

6. The Topaz enhancement also highlights what may be a dorsal stripe; however, we recognize that this may an artifact.

Project Coyote is an independent, self-funded (some would possibly characterize it as misguided, but it’s our time and money…) group of citizen-scientists who are committed to definitively documenting the persistence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker into the twenty-first century. The effort is on-going and will continue until the species is proven to be extant in North America or until we are satisfied that comprehensive search efforts have failed. As our experiences to date have made clear, many reports have been overlooked or ignored, and vast swaths of promising habitat have been searched poorly or not at all

All photos and text by Frank Wiley. Topaz enhancement courtesy of Bill Benish.

Please direct your questions to:   projectcoyote2010@gmail.com