The Largest White-Bill Wood-Pecker and the Willow Oak
c.1722-6RCIN 924829
Catesby would have encountered the spectacular ivory-bill, the largest species of woodpecker, both in Florida and in the Bahamas. By the 1950s it had disappeared from its forested natural habitat, and was thought to be extinct. Recently there have been reported sightings of the bird and there are hopes that the species has survived after all.