The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Tanner

James T. Tanner

If you read any of the new books about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, or get to hear any of the presentations from the folks involved in the searches, they will always refer to “Tanner”. That is because he was the last biologist to study the Ivory-billeds in the field. That alone, makes this book essential to anyone interested in learning more about this fascinating bird.

From the publisher, “Long thought extinct, the elusive Ivory-billed Woodpecker may yet live: in 1999, the birding community was galvanized at the news of a sighting in Louisiana. A series of expeditions continue to search, and all seekers rely on this elegant treatise. Written as a doctoral thesis, The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was published by the National Audubon Society in 1942, when a few of the species could still be found in the southern United States. The book opens with a general description (explaining how to distinguish the Ivory-bill from its more commonly encountered cousin, the Pileated Woodpecker), and offers an extensive profile of the species' other characteristics and habits, including its original distribution patterns, the history of its disappearance, and its feeding, nesting, and breeding habits.”

Paper, 112 pages, 6 1/2 x 9 ¼’ b&w photographs, maps, originally published in 1942, reprinted July 2003.