The spectacular ivory-billed woodpecker, which was declared extinct in 1920, has been found alive in North America, Science magazine reports. The news has stunned ornithologists worldwide, with some comparing the discovery to finding the dodo. Researchers began an intense year-long search after a tip-off before finally capturing the bird on video. The find has ignited hope that other "extinct" birds may be clinging on to survival in isolated places. "This find is so significant that it is really difficult to describe," Alistair Gammell, of the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), told BBC News. "We sadly won't rediscover the dodo, but it is almost on that level." Frank Gill, of the US National Audubon Society, added: "This is huge, just huge. It is kind of like finding Elvis." The "stunning" red, white and black woodpecker was formerly distributed across the south-eastern United States and Cuba.The bird carves out a narrow niche for itself by drilling in mature trees, and logging and forest clearance for agriculture began to impinge on its environment. By 1920, it was assumed extinct, although there was one more confirmed sighting in North America of a lonely unpaired female, above the remnants of an over-cut forest. Since then, decades of searches yielded nothing and hope gradually faded away.
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