The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put off a decision about whether ivory-billed woodpeckers are extinct, announcing Wednesday that it's adding six months to review information, including a month of public comment.
"We are aware that there have been surveys or evidence collected recently," Amy Trahan, the agency's expert on the birds, said Wednesday. "This extra time allows them to submit their evidence to consider."
The bird, which also has been called the Lord God bird for the astounded exclamations by people who saw one, has or had a 30-inch (76-centimetre) wingspan, a high, nasal call and a distinctive double knock as it pecks for beetles.
It was among 23 animals the agency said in September 2021 it was planning to declare gone from the earth, removing them from the endangered list.
The agency is still reviewing evidence from two public comment periods about the woodpecker, Trahan said.
In the public comment period the agency is looking for photos or videos so clear that they "can be repeatedly interpreted the same way by independent observers."
Trahan would not comment about what has been submitted or who has made surveys or collected more evidence.
Ornithologist John Fitzpatrick, a former director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said, "Nobody has gotten that cover-of-Time-magazine foldout that everybody wishes they could. But there is still legitimate believable evidence that these birds still exist in remote locations of Louisiana and Arkansas."
Fitzpatrick, who was lead author of a 2005 study that said the woodpecker had been found in eastern Arkansas, said a non-peer-reviewed paper by respected experts posted on a "preprint" site has some very interesting videos. One shows a group of three large woodpeckers pecking at branches high in a tree.
"The only woodpecker that foraged together in small groups was the ivorybill," he said.
The Wildlife and Fisheries Service announcement in September opened a 60-day period for public comment, and another comment period was opened with a virtual public meeting about the woodpecker in January.
Only one of nine speakers at that meeting supported the proposal to declare the bird extinct. Fitzpatrick was among experts who said the proposal was premature.
"For a species this iconic, this well-known, I think the right approach for them to take is caution," he said Wednesday. "And I think that's what they're doing."
The other 22 animals are still proposed for removal from the endangered list because of extinction. The agency has a year from the September announcement to take final action and has not yet done so.
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On Sept. 20, Justice R.E. Nation of the Alberta Court of King's Bench found Craig McMorran guilty of fraud, money laundering and stealing a cottage from its rightful owners.
It's been exactly three years since Canadian Michael Kovrig returned to Canada after spending 1,019 days in a Chinese prison. Now, he's publicly speaking out about his arrest and detainment for the first time.
Ontario's police watchdog is investigating after a Durham officer discharged a Taser and an anti-riot weapon at a 15-year-old boy in north Oshawa on Sunday.
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Police say a toddler in Cambridge, Ont., who was reported missing early Monday morning, has since died.
Malaysian police said Monday they have rescued 187 more children and raided locations nationwide linked to an Islamic business group that is being investigated for alleged sexual assault of children.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon Monday killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Japan’s meteorological agency on Tuesday issued a tsunami advisory to a group of remote islands south of Tokyo after a strong earthquake.
A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was convicted Monday of murder and faces life in prison.
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The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former president and maintained in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.
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House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus gave MPs a stern warning on Monday about improving their behaviour as they prepare for a fractious debate about whether the Liberals should continue to govern.
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Finally, an emoji to represent us all is coming soon: An exhausted face with bags under its eyes.
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