It was just too miraculous to imagine. Gene Sparling was kayaking when he spotted a large black-and-white bird. It looked like an ivory-billed woodpecker, last spotted in North America 60 years ago. His eyes must be playing tricks, he thought. Maybe it was a common pileated woodpecker.” (Yahoo! News)

The Lord God Bird: “Here are the reasons to be impressed by the ivory-billed woodpecker, which has emerged like a feathered ghost from the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas more than a half-century after its presumed extinction.” (New York Times editorial)