"I Think I Saw A..." "No, No You Didn't."

It's hard to keep a good bird down... or extinct, as the situation may (or may not) be.  Recently, trail camera and drone footage in the bottomland hardwood forests of Louisiana, placed by researchers from the National Aviary, suggests the possibility that the iconic ivory-billed woodpecker may have cheated death yet again and still be with us.  The pictures are not of the highest quality, as footage taken in the wild tends to be, so the debate is hardly settled.  The folks from the National Aviary are, of course, bird experts, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of a doubt.

Mounted specimen at California Academy of Sciences.  Photo credit Haven Daley, AP

You know who I'm not giving the benefit of a doubt to?  The facebook comments section of every single article posted about the potential reappearance of this species.  To hear these folks say it, if you throw a brick up in the air, it's going to knock five or six ivory-bills out of the sky.

The news comments above, just for the record, are from a randomly selected story out of Baltimore, with the commenters being from central Maryland - where this species never occurred.

I don't know why this bothers me so much.  Partially it's the sheer confidence of being incorrect.  Partially, it's like they're trying to top someone else's story and (potential) good news: "Pfft, I see those all the time, big deal."  Then, it can be a hassle for researchers who are actually within the historic range of the species to be buried under false sightings by wishful thinkers.  Lastly, if the specie is still around, it can make it that much harder to shore up conservation support and protection, especially if everyone thinks the bird is so common already.

I wish the media, when reporting these stories, would do a better job of helping with identification.  Every single one of these folks probably saw a pileated woodpecker - which is an absolutely awesome bird, and one that I am always thrilled to see, but which is NOT an ivory-bill.  Instead, we get ignorant news stories like the one below, encouraging and legitimizing these false sightings.

Rare woodpecker thought to be extinct reportedly spotted in Ohio

This story is from Ohio.  Also not the range of the ivory-bill.