User Reviews

Contrary to earlier comments the subject of this documentary is -not really- a rare woodpecker. The bird is merely the conduit for a documentary about much stranger animals: people. It's about how a Mayberry-like community in the deep American South dealt with a brief spotlight of fame when the bird is spotted in its vicinity. It's about excited ornithologists and amateur bird-watchers. It's about the media hungry for feel-good stories amidst a swamp of feel-bad daily news.

Yes, if you're a bird watcher you'll certainly enjoy this doc. But if you could not care less about birds you'll nevertheless be entertained by the portrayal of people's reactions to this spotting, as it's just barely this side of being a bit snarky.

One technical criticism: the audio design is rather poor. For example, the stints of background music become unnerving because they often overwhelms the dialog and is often just distractive noise. Very annoying. But for the poor audio design I would have given this a 7.

This superb documentary exposes one of the most egregious cases of "faith based scientific fraud" in recent times. This fraud was perpetrated by the most prestigious Ornithological institution in the US no less, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The manner in which the Lunard video was handled by a team of "researchers" from Cornell is scandalous. This video should have been vetted by all the top field ornithologists in America, before it was published in Science Magazine as definitive proof that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers still persist. Several top "birders", most notably David Sibley, exposed the amateurish mistake almost immediately. But by this point it was too late, the Ivory-bill frenzy was in full swing.

Without going into the details, which are well chronicled in the documentary, Cornell has refused any comment on the situation, hiding behind the weak argument that "it can't be proved that Ivory-billeds are extinct", and hoping that the passage of time will cause this incident to blow over. Meanwhile, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who originally bought this crock hook, line and sinker, have backed off the Ivory-billed Recovery Plan, stating that "conditions for recovery are inadequate", instead of admitting that the bird is extinct.

For the record, the American Birding Association voted 7-0, not to accept any recent reports of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. The Florida Rare Bird Committee did the same. This scandal should have shaken the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to its core, but it appears they have been successful at diverting blame, while remaining tight lipped about the entire episode.