Habitat Inventory and Search for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Cache River Watershed, Illinois

The goals of this proposed research were to search for IBWOs in the Cache River watershed (CRW) of Illinois, inventory habitat, deploy multiple cameras (color and black-and-white) to monitor trees with bark-scaling or large cavities, and coordinate with local as well as national search and inventory efforts. Our specific objectives were to: 1.Actively/Systematically search for IBWOs at the locations (a 2-km2 area of mature forest centered on each sighting) of where two unsubstantiated sightings of IBWOs have occurred (e.g., Section 8 Woods, and Heron Pond). 2.Actively/Systematically search 8 additional 2-km2 plots of “suitable” habitat including 4 plots associated with a “trigger” patch (one of the plots in number 1 above), for a total of 10 plots of mature forest searched. 3.Conduct point counts throughout each of the 10 2-km2 plots to document the diversity and densities of woodpeckers in the watershed during the winter/early-spring period (January-April). 4.Deploy RECONYX cameras to collect images at trees with “promising” cavities or bark scaling and document the visitation to trees by various bird species. 5.Assess and inventory habitat in each of the 10 2-km2 plots that were searched, and provide information to the region-wide effort that is using site-occupancy modeling techniques to predict where IBWOs are more likely to occur. 6.Passively search for IBWOs within an additional 1,300 ha of mature bottomland forest that was visited every 3-4 days by researchers studying the bottomland forest bird community during the breeding season (April-June)