Another sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker, this time in Florida. The ornithological world was set aflutter in 2004 when Cornell University researchers recorded the bird’s call and released a grainy video shot in an Arkansas swamp — the first confirmed sighting in 60 years.

woodpecker.jpgThe Florida bird was seen by Auburn University ornithologists. They published their findings in Canada’s Avian Conservation and Ecology journal online Tuesday. But they couldn’t get a photo the big bird, whick makes a distinct double rapping sound.

“On 14 occasions different team members have seen the bird. We heard that double knock, it’s a sound the ivory-billed makes that no other bird makes, but we didn’t get a clear video of the bird,” Auburn ornithologist Geoffrey Hill said to the Associated Press.

“The ultimate prize is finding pairs visiting roost holes and making babies, that would be the holy grail,” said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell lab, which consulted with the Auburn team. “Absent that, the intervening step is to get a photograph that allows everyone else to see the evidence and get on board.”

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) once ranged in mature bottomland forests of southeastern North America from east Texas to Florida and the Carolinas along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts and north in the Mississippi River Valley to southern Missouri.

Habitat destruction — the cutting of swamp forests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — and hunting by collectors led to the bird’s demise.

B.L.