Response to Comment on "Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America"
John W. Fitzpatrick,1*
Martjan Lammertink,1,2
M. David Luneau, Jr.,3
Tim W. Gallagher,1
Kenneth V. Rosenberg1
Claims that the bird in the Luneau video is a normal pileated
woodpecker are based on misrepresentations of a pileated's underwing
pattern, interpretation of video artifacts as plumage pattern,
and inaccurate models of takeoff and flight behavior. These
claims are contradicted by experimental data and fail to explain
evidence in the Luneau video of white dorsal plumage, distinctive
flight behavior, and a perched woodpecker with white upper parts.
2 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Mauritskade 61, 1092 AD Amsterdam, Netherlands.
3 Department of Engineering Technology and Department of Information Technology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR 72204, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jwf7{at}cornell.edu
