The ivory-billed woodpecker, America’s largest woodpecker, with a 31-inch wingspan, is extinct, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ending years of lingering hopes that the “Lord God Bird” had survived deep in southern bottomland forests. The ivory-bill was one of 23 species declared extinct on Wednesday, 11 of them birds.
“With climate change and natural area loss pushing more and more species to the brink, now is the time to lift up proactive, collaborative, and innovative efforts to save America’s wildlife,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. She said the Endangered Species Act was “incredibly effective” at preventing extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said protection came too late for the 23 species; most were extinct, functionally extinct, or in steep decline when they were listed as endangered.
Climate change is the latest threat to endangered species, along with habitat loss, land overuse, and the introduction of invasive species and disease.
Besides the ivory-bill — “Lord God Bird” refers to the overwhelmed reaction of those who actually got to see the woodpecker in the wild — the extinction list includes the Bachman’s warbler, for decades one of North America’s rarest songbirds; 11 bird species in Hawaii and Guam, including the curved-billed Kauai akialoa; eight species of freshwater mussels in the U.S. Southeast; and two species of fish, the San Marcos gambusia in Texas and the Scioto madtom, found only in one creek in Ohio.