Imperial Woodpecker

Description

56-60 cm tall

Enormous black and white woodpecker

Largest woodpecker in the world

Mostly black with large white wing patch and thin white "braces" on the mantle

Huge ivory bill

Males has curly red crest

Females have curly black crest

Only woodpecker in Mexico with solid black underparts

Call sounds like a toy trumpet (Birds of the World)

To see an artist's rendering of the woodpecker, click here.

Range

Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico in states such as Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Nayarit, Zacatecas, Jalisco (north and west), and Michoacán (IUCN Red List)

Habitat

Pine-oak forests on plateaus at an average elevation of 8,400 feet or 2,550 meters above sea level

Diet

Fed on beetle larvae in dead pine trees

Nesting

nest holes were made 65 feet high in dead pines

Nest had between 1-2 young

Breeding

February to June

Immature birds from April until September (Data Zone-Birdlife International)

Behavior

Groups between 5-8 individuals

Behavior was never fully studied (Mendenhall, 2006)

Listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct (IUCN Red List; Assessment by Birdlife International).

Prominent Mexican sources such as Mi Ambiente, Grupo Ecológico Sierra Madre, El Sol de Parral, and Artimalia agree with the Mexican government's assessment that the Imperial Woodpecker is extinct and marks a tremendous loss to Mexican biodiversity.

Just as with its close relative, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (C. principalis), the last documented Imperial Woodpecker was from April or May 1956 in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains of western Mexico (Lammertink et al. 2011).

The only known film of an Imperial Woodpecker was taken by Dr. William L. Rhein (a dentist and amateur birder) in 1956. Martjan Lammertink (a scientist at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology) discovered the existence of the film in the Cornell archives. He tracked Rhein down and was able to watch the original film that was shot using a 16-mm color motion camera. In 2005, Rhein's nephew donated the film to the Cornell Lab where it was restored (Kaufman, 2011).

Sightings After 1956

According to Mendenhall (2006), many locals claimed to have seen the Imperial Woodpecker several times between the years 1965-1995, all of them within the species' former range:

1) Calabazas after a lumber mill opened in 1965
2) Sightings in Yahuirachic stopped around 1970 
3) Sightings near Huajumar between 1975 and 1980 
4) Sighting in Pinos Altos/Ocampo area in 1980 or 1981 
5) Seen near Parajito sawmill between 1980 and 1982 
6) Lone birds in the Sierra Tabaco in 1977, 1990, and 1993 
7) Pair seen at Mesa Potrillos in April or May 1993 
8) Male sighted 12 miles northwest of Piélagos, March 1995

For a map of the sightings, click here.

Recent Unconfirmed Sighting (2021)

According to the El Heraldo de México, an Imperial Woodpecker was spotted in Atenguillo, Jalisco in January 2021. This is an area that does lay within the Imperial Woodpecker's former range and still maintains pine forests that are similar to the woodpecker's habitat as well as a large degree of biodiversity. As of yet, no expedition has been made to verify the veracity of this claim.

Extensive habitat destruction combined with overhunting are suspected to have been the main causes of its decline and possible extinction. Extensive searching in the areas of its former range have failed to yield any concrete results of the woodpecker's existence. The Imperial Woodpecker cannot be presumed to be extinct because it is possible that surviving members of this species can use sub-optimal regenerating forest as a habitat. Any surviving population would likely between 1-49 individuals (IUCN Red List).

The Imperial Woodpecker lived only in mature pine forests of more than 2,000 meters above sea level. This species needed the presence of large-scale trees [as well as] large standing dead trees. A combination of persecution on the part of hunters and a massive loss of habitat led the emperor of the woodpeckers on an inescapable spiral towards extinction" (Arita, 2006; Translated by Nick Ortiz).

99.4% of the Imperial Woodpecker's habitat was already cut down by logging operations by 1995.

It is believed that Imperial Woodpeckers depend exclusively on old growth pine forests to survive unlike their cousins the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Second-growth forests may not be enough to sustain a possible surviving population (Grupo Ecológico Sierra Madre).

It is estimated that a population of Imperial Woodpeckers would need 26-98 square kilometers of old growth pine forest to survive (Artimalia).

Total Population never numbered more than 8,000 individuals (Mendenhall, 2006).

Increasing political instability in Mexico as more and more regions fall under the control of drug cartels. Unfortunately, this has occurred with Mexico's remaining pine forests as many of them are located within areas that are constantly under the threat of violence by traffickers. This makes mounting an expedition to these regions very difficult due to safety concerns. To make matters worse, whatever remains is being destroyed to make way for more lands for drug cultivation (Gallagher, 2011).

Expeditions to Find the Imperial Woodpecker

The Rhein Expeditions

W.H Rhein led three expeditions in search of the Imperial Woodpecker: 1953, 1954, 1956. In 1953, he led a team to explore Tepehuanes and Topia but found only old cavities. In the same year, he and his team observed several Imperial Woodpeckers at the lumber camp of Los Laureles and received reports that 12 woodpeckers were shot that year. In 1954, Rhein and his team travelled to the Guacamaya mountains where they found more Imperial Woodpeckers in a virgin pine forest. According to Rhein, they found cavities that were between 15 and 90 feet (5 and 27 meters). In 1956, Rhein filmed a live Imperial Woodpecker in a pine forest near Guacamayita (Lammertink et al., 2011).

The Tanner Expedition

In 1962, James Tanner and his son, David, went to southern Durango to search for the Imperial Woodpecker. They estimated that the woodpeckers would be found in the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental at an above elevation of 6,500 feet or 2,000 meters in the north and 8,000 feet or 2,500 meters in the south. They went on the claim that Imperial Woodpeckers liked large pine forests with lots of dead trees that differed from the Ivory-Billed Woodpekcer that did feed in pine trees but preferred swampy forests. They believed that Imperial Woodpeckers inhabited hexagonal areas with centers 6 miles apart or 6 per 30 square kilometers or 1 pair per 10 square miles. In addition, they contended that Imperial Woodpeckers fed exclusively on dead trees and estimated that the young stayed with the parents until the next nesting season with flocks between 5-10 individuals. Before they arrived, the Tanners learned from locals in Chihuahua that long ago 17 imperials were killed in a few months and, in 1953, 12 were supposedly shot near a logging operation. In the region, the woodpeckers were hunted for medicinal purposes. Since 1950, Imperial Woodpeckers were seen in Chihuahua and southern Durango. The Tanners went to La Guacamayita, a lumber camp 80 km south of Durango. The locals said the woodpecker was gone. They then went to San Miguel de las Cruces, 130 km west-northwest of Durango to check out the virgin pine forests there but the locals said the woodpeckers were gone there too. They then went to Los Charcos, 130 km south of Durango, after travelling through virgin pine forest. They examined a couple of trees with cavities that could have been carved out by Imperial Woodpeckers. Locals said there were no woodpeckers left in the area. Tanner did not find any Imperial Woodpeckers and argued that overhunting was the main cause of the woodpecker’s extinction (Tanner, 1962).

The Lammertink Expedition

In 1994-1995, Martjan Lammertink, Jorge Rojas, Federico Casillas, and Roger Otto searched for the woodpecker and interviewed more than 60 locals. 60% said they saw the woodpecker between the years 1946-1965. The authors suggested that this period marked the height of the woodpecker’s extinction. They did not find the woodpecker but did find excavations of fallen logs and snags that could only have been made by a large woodpecker in a small old-growth pine forest near Durango. Some villagers said that Imperial Woodpeckers would steal acorns from Acorn Woodpeckers to survive. The researchers ruled out the Pale-Billed Woodpecker as the culprit due to the fact that these acts occurred at an elevation and in a habitat where these woodpeckers are not found. Lammertink et al. concluded that two imperials could have survived into the 1990s but that extinction was inevitable. Shortly after the expedition, another sighting in 1996 in a canyon near the Durango sightings was recorded. It was investigated in 2003 by Roger Otto and a local guide. They only found evidence of a robbed granary tree and a snag that was similar to what Lammertink et al. found in the previous expedition. Otto agreed with Lammertink that this was done by a lone, solitary Imperial Woodpecker. Lammertink commented that he has more hope for the Imperial Woodpecker's cousin, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, due to the fact that, in Mexico, there are less protected areas and more unregulated hunting (Mendenhall, 2006).

The Gallagher Expedition

A new expedition was launched by ornithologist Tim Gallagher in 2009-2010. He was accompanied by Martjan Lammertink who led the last expedition sixteen years earlier. Gallagher and his team wanted to search the area where Rhein had filmed the Imperial Woodpecker in 1956 in Durango to see if any of the bird's former habitat remained from that time. They first went to the northern section of the Sierra Madre in Chihuahua then through the rim forests of the Barranca del Cobre in the high country above Garcia, Pacheco, and Chuhuichupa where Imperial Woodpecker specimens were collected in previous years. Gallagher et al. interviewed locals in Durango where they claimed they had seen the woodpecker as late as 2004. At first, there was hope since there still remained uncut forests on high mesas with steep rocky sides as well as in other areas that Gallagher and Lammertink had identified using Google Maps. In several areas, Lammertink used a device that mimicked the double knock drum common to Campephilus woodpeckers. After looking at the Rhein film and interviewing locals, Gallagher and his team identified the location where the Rhein film was made near the village of Guacamayita. Unfortunately for the team of researchers, many areas had already fallen under the control of drug cartels such as the Zetas with violence and kidnappings becoming more and more rampant. Threats of violence caused various members of the Gallagher team to quit with others being uneasy. Despite this, Gallagher and his team pushed on and investigated 18 locations with a good view of the open forest where they used Lammertink's device. In these same areas, they also played the calls attributed to the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker that were used by the Cornell expedition in 1935 in the southern United States. The team received no response. They were disappointed to discover that the old growth pine forests in the Rhein film are long gone with many areas being logged several times. In addition, they learned from a locals that, during the 1950s, loggers convinced villagers to poison trees so as to prevent the Imperial Woodpecker from ruining good timber. Even though Imperial Woodpeckers only eat beetle larvae in dead pine trees, this deliberate poisoning campaign combined with habitat loss and overhunting caused Imperial Woodpecker numbers to plummet starting in the 1950s. The expedition ended without finding the Imperial Woodpecker and with the sad truth that many of the areas that the team wanted to explore were either inaccessible or were already burned down by cartels to make room for drug cultivation. Gallagher remarked, "Our expedition was one of the most sobering and depressing journeys of my life. It all seemed so hopeless. Even if we had found Imperial Woodpeckers there, I doubt we could have saved them" (Gallagher, 2011).

Order: Piciformes

Family: Picidae

Genus: Campephilus

Species: Campephilus imperialis