The last authenticated sighting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was made in 1939 by James Tanner, a student at Cornell University .. until 2004 !

Thought to have been extinct for nearly 60 years, the almost mythical Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been the Holy Grail of birders everywhere. And then it was discovered again in Arkansas in 2004. Since this bird with a 30" wingspan originally ranged across the deep South from Missouri to eastern Texas and south Florida into the Carolinas, pursuit of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has migrated to the birds' natural habitat of "gloomy swamps and morasses overshadowed by dark, gigantic cypresses" along the blackwater rivers of South Carolina.

The South Carolina chapter of The Nature Conservancy, as part of the S.C. Ivory-billed Woodpecker Working Group, is seeking to confirm rediscovery of the bird locally as some experts have heard the definitive double-rap of the bird's bill pounding against trees along the Wambaw Creek in Francis Marion National Forest, Cooter Creek running along the western edge of Sandy Island, and now the Black River Swamp Nature Preserve in Georgetown County.

Besides the usual ducks and owls, kingfishers, ibis and wood storks, swallow-tail kites, wild turkeys and swamp canaries, now you can keep your eyes open for the biggest prize of all .. the Ivory-billed Woodpecker !