Ivory-billed woodpecker

Campephilus principalis Conservation status: EXTINCT Thought to be extinct for more than 60 years, the ivory-billed woodpecker has become the species most people associate with extinction in the Americas. The huge appetite for lumber to rebuild after the American Civil War led to the destruction of the ivorybilled woodpecker’s habitat and its primary food source, beetle larvae. Demand from collectors increased as it became rarer, speeding its extirpation. Although in 2004, a large woodpecker was spotted that some thought to be the ivory-billed variety, no indisputable evidence has emerged to confirm its existence.