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Nov. 11, 2011
The Hunt For A Vanishing Woodpecker

This is the only known photographic documentation of the Imperial woodpecker, a 2-foot-tall relation of the Ivory-billed woodpecker. Found in a mountain range in Mexico, the Imperial is highly endangered, if not extinct. William Rhein, a dentist and amateur ornithologist who captured the bird on film in the 50s, wasn't pleased with the footage, and never publicly released the film. Tim Gallagher, editor-in-chief of Living Bird magazine, describes how the film was found and how it inspired Gallagher to pay a visit to the very same area a half century later.
Footage was recorded by Dr. William L. Rhein Ronald Thorpe donated the film to the Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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