This recording is from an unknown bird(s) that has made a series of Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO) like 'kent' calls. Analysis is ongoing by well-regarded audio and ornithological experts. You can hear other birds in the foreground more prominently as they were much closer to the recorder. The kent-like calls (three faint calls at the 5 second mark and then seven more at the 29 second mark) appeared to come from well over 100 yards away, through brush and trees, and the source bird(s) was therefore not observed. These calls were significantly offset from the other more prominent bird calls recorded (about 40-45 degrees). A light breeze was present with occasional gusts that unfortunately caused some ambient noise in the recording and lower Hz interference on initial spectrogram analysis. I sat in a pre-selected position about one hour before sunrise, recording continuously from 06:18 to 09:32, while maintaining a well concealed position with very little movement throughout. At no point did I make use of any playback sounds- I simply let nature happen around me. Being somewhat familiar with varying kent-like calls from several species (IBWO, BLJA, WBNU), I was immediately surprised by these calls and felt they were very intriguing and, to my ear at least, sounded consistent with what I would expect from an IBWO. Blue Jay as the source is still a possible explanation and further analysis is being conducted to determine how the specific audio characteristics of these calls compare to known and likely IBWO calls and those of similar sounding BLJA kent-like calls.

Matt Courtman is at present spending considerable field time (including with guest researchers) searching for evidence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and has had some December 2022 acoustic contacts in the form of double-knocks.

The double-knock (DK) is largely diagnostic for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO). There exist recordings to compare to-- 1. Dan Mennill's University of Ontario IBWO sound page. This work accompanied Geoff Hill's excellent study in the Choctawatchee River where numerous sightings were made by professionals. 2. Project Principalis' recordings of DKs with similar sightings. 3. DKs by other Campephilus, as found for example on this Xeno-canto website 4. Cornell's dataset which includes information about time intervals, and the idea that each knock is not the same volume 5. Mike Collins' excellent paper on the mechanics of the IBWO's DK 6. Recent audio from South Carolina accompanied by sightings. In all cases, the example presented here agrees with their DK information.

Matt Courtman's recordings (this is an example of others), done as one of the initiatives of 'Mission Ivorybill', strongly suggest IBWO encounters, especially using spectrogram comparisons and analysis, which discourage interpretations of gunshots (these show more echo) and tree rub or wing collisions (days with no wind, no duck observations, and wing collision unlikely to always show nonequal sound volumes). The DKs are found nearest to the bottom of each image, as paired marks. Our conclusion, after all these considerations, is that IBWO(s?) are being encountered. This posting on Xeno-canto also serves as an example of many DK recordings since the year 2000, as mentioned above, from Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina.

The sonogram (spectrogram) presented here is created by Xeno-canto and thus is an independent analysis from our own (using Audacity and Sonic Visualizer). It should show the first knock being louder, and a time interval between 0.07 and 0.13 seconds. The double knock is found at 24.5 seconds of the recording.

Forest type was deciduous, was foggy / wet outside and lightly raining. Other birds were singing. An hour later 2 Pileated Woodpeckers were seen, but no Ivory-Bill. I found marks on nearby trees, similar to feeding marks of an Ivory-bill, but I am currently unsure if there were any other trees similar as I only saw one.

it was located in VA - Bristol, no specific location.