Measurements

Largest woodpecker known to have lived in North America north of Mexico. Appendix provides standard anatomical measurements from specimens examined from numerous collections. Based on measurements taken, males from the 2 largest samples (n. Florida/Georgia and s. Florida) averaged only slightly larger than females in wing-chord, and length of culmen from distal edge of nostril. This pattern also apparent for most other samples. Sample from Texas and Louisiana differed as a result of overall smaller measurements for a single male specimen taken in Jul (possibly a juvenile misidentified as an adult). Females exceeded males in tail length in 4 out of 7 samples, but many specimens had an exceedingly worn tail. A woodpecker tail wears greatly over the course of a year as a result of abrasion with tree surfaces, and inadequate numbers of Ivory-billed specimens are available to compare birds in fresh plumage. Cursory evaluation of data from various regional samples suggests the species varies geographically in size, larger to the north, smaller to the south, and smallest in Cuba.

In addition to measurements in Appendix, however, are some measurements no longer possible to obtain—total length and wingspan measured on fresh specimens. In the course of examining Ivory-billed specimens, I noted 5 (2 adult males, 3 adult females) for which these measurements were given on the original specimen label. All 5 birds were from Florida, the largest male from n. Florida, the remainder from s. Florida. Total length of the 2 males averaged 50.2 cm (50.8, 49.5), and for 3 females 47.8 cm (45.7, 48.3, 49.5). Wingspan of 2 males averaged 79.2 cm (79.7, 78.7); for 2 females, 77.5 cm (78.7, 76.2).

An extraordinary aberrant specimen of a female Ivory-billed was collected in Cuba by Juan Gundlach and described by Cory (1886). The bird had an overgrown upper bill such that it could not wear normally and hence grew out, curving downward to a length of about 43 cm (JAJ). In mid-nineteenth century, Gundlach (F. García pers. comm.) discovered the adult-plumaged bird along with an adult male and female Ivory-billed. He was curious as to how the aberrant bird fed, followed the trio for 3 d, observing that the aberrant bird could probe into arboreal termite nests to feed, but that it was also being fed by the other 2 adults. Then he collected all 3. The specimens are in the collections of the Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, in Havana, Cuba (adult male #2226, adult female #11, aberrant female #5999).

Few data. Catesby (1731) stated the mass to be 20 oz. (567 g). The label with a study skin of a male collected in Hernando Co., FL, on 17 Jan 1877 (MCZ # 35888 fide Tanner 1942a) indicates that the bird weighed 1 lb (454 g). Hahn (1963) lists this specimen as being at the MCZ, but I did not find it among those in the collection there; MCZ # 35889 is a female Ivory-billed taken in Hernando Co., FL, 18 Mar 1876. W. J. Fleming (in McKinley 1958: 381) noted that an Ivory-billed shot in Kentucky “weighed upwards of 1 lb” (454 g).