Bird Song Sways Scientists

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Researchers who last month questioned the existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, saying blurry videotape of a bird in flight was not enough evidence, have changed their tune after hearing recordings from the wild.

The doubters had prepared an article for a scientific journal questioning whether the bird, once thought extinct, had really been found in an Arkansas swamp. They now plan to withdraw the article.

``We were very skeptical of the first published reports,'' Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, said in a statement. ``But the thrilling new sound recordings provide clear and convincing evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct.''

The audiotape evidence also seems to indicate more than one ivory-billed woodpecker in the area.

``The bird that we saw had to have a mommy and a daddy,'' said Scott Simon, director of the Nature Conservancy in Arkansas. ``We have solid evidence for one. We believe there are more.''

Ornithologists announced in April that an ivory-billed woodpecker -- a bird believed to have been extinct since 1944 -- was living in a swamp in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Arkansas. A kayaker had reported seeing the bird a year earlier.

Bird experts at Yale, Kansas and Florida Gulf Coast universities last month questioned the evidence, saying it was only strong enough to suggest the presence of an ivory bill, not proof.

Then, the recordings were provided to them by the Cornell ornithology lab.

``We sent them some sounds this summer from the Arkansas woods,'' said lab director John Fitzpatrick, who initially helped confirm the claim. ``We appreciate their ability to say they are now believers.''