Heavy logging activity exacerbated by hunting by collectors devastated the population of ivory-billed woodpeckers in the late 19th century.

Overall it is a very large and distinctive woodpecker with a charismatic, very clean and smooth appearance. Among North American woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker is unique in having a bill whose tip is quite flattened laterally, shaped much like a beveled wood chisel. Like all woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker has a strong and straight bill and a long, mobile, hard-tipped, barbed tongue. However, pileated woodpeckers, apparently aberrant individuals, have been reported with white trailing edges on the wings, forming a white triangular patch on the lower back when perched. Pileated woodpeckers normally have no white on the trailing edges of their wings and when perched, normally show only a small patch of white on each side of the body near the edge of the wing. Pileated woodpecker juveniles and adults have a red crest and a white chin. It also has a white neck stripe, but the back is normally black. The pileated woodpecker normally is brownish-black, smoky, or slaty black in color. These characteristics distinguish them from the smaller and darker-billed pileated woodpecker. When perched with the wings folded, birds of both sexes present a large patch of white on the lower back, roughly triangular in shape.

The chin of an ivory-billed woodpecker is black. In males, the crest is black along its forward edge, changing abruptly to red on the side and rear. The crest is black in juveniles and females. Ivory-bills have a prominent crest, although in juveniles it is ragged. In adults, the bill is ivory in color, and chalky white in juveniles. The underwing is also white along its forward edge, resulting in a black line running along the middle of the underwing, expanding to more extensive black at the wingtip. It is shiny blue-black with white markings on its neck and back and extensive white on the trailing edge of both the upper- and underwing. The bird is sexually dimorphic, as seen in the picture to the right.

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