Cornell University researchers will present new audio evidence supporting the existence of the phantomlike ivory-billed woodpecker Aug. 24 and 25 at the 123rd American Ornithologists' Union meeting in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology researcher Russ Charif will begin presenting the new audio evidence at 10:30 a.m. PST Aug. 24 in Lotte Lehmann Hall at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB). Lab members Ron Rohrbaugh and Ken Rosenberg and Director John Fitzpatrick will also make presentations.

One recording suggests the presence of at least two birds: a signature double rap that sounds like an ivory-billed woodpecker drumming on a tree from a distance followed by a closer double rap. This drumming behavior is typical of many large woodpeckers closely related with the ivory-bill. Other recordings include sounds that resemble the ivory-billed woodpecker's distinctively nasal "kent" calls. The sounds were discovered by Cornell audio experts combing through 17,000 hours of audio files from autonomous recording units installed in the Arkansas woods and swamplands.