WASHINGTON - Experts have rediscovered the Ivory billed woodpecker in the United States 61 years after it was put on the extinct list and the government said Thursday that 10 million dollars would be spent to make sure it stays alive.
Ornitholigists said several sightings of the bird had been made in a refuge in Arkansas state and video of the bird made last year was released on Thursday.
More than 50 experts and biologists took part in an operation to find the bird again after the initial sighting was made by a kayaker on the White River in eastern Arkansas, National Public Radio (NPR) reported.
It was last sighted in 1944 and was thought to have fallen victim of widespread logging in the region.
Experts from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in New York and The Nature Conservancy kept the woodpecker`s existence a secret for more than a year to allow time to protect the bird`s habitat in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas.
The Nature Conservancy and federal agencies have been buying land in the district to better protect the bird`s habitat.
The Interior Department and the Department of Agriculture said they would spend more than 10 million dollars to protect the Ivory billed woodpecker, a large, showy bird with a red head and cream coloured bill.
Private groups and individuals have already committed about 10 million dollars to buy land and research the woodpecker`s habitat.
"This is a rare second chance to preserve through cooperative conservation what was once thought lost forever," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
04/28/2005 20:38 GMT