September 9, 2005

The Ivory-Billed What?

By LILA GUTERMAN

In the forests of western Mexico, Jorge H. Vega Rivera searches for the rare and elusive ivory bill.

Well, not exactly elusive. And certainly not rare. In fact, Mr. Vega Rivera, a research scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, sees the birds whenever he goes looking for them.

Mr. Vega Rivera is an expert on the ivory-billed woodcreeper. Like all but a few ornithologists alive today, he has never seen an ivory-billed woodpecker. That bird, North America's