What does IBW stand for?

The search for the giant worm is reminiscent of efforts in Louisiana, Florida and the swamps of eastern Arkansas to find the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.

Meet Joe Kenney, the ivory-billed woodpecker of New Hampshire politics.

Genuine "budget hawks" are as rare as the ivory-billed woodpecker.

HILL At the start of this century, most naturalists thought the ivory-billed woodpecker had been hunted to extinction.

Recent unconfirmed sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker have prompted ornithologists to question whether the bird has, in fact, survived.

Written for all ages from kids to adults, The Gulf Coast is as educational as it is entertaining, and the stories within tell of a legend about a Mississippi Choctaw hunter and an alligator; ivory-billed woodpeckers observed by John Audubon; violent hurricanes and mild winters; and land ranging from the watery Everglades to the Rio Grande delta to the beaches of South Padre Island.

Last year's team searched an area of about 500,000 acres--while the ivory-billed woodpeckers themselves have a home range of 2 to 6 square miles.

Since then, numerous search parties have been launched to comb that patch of forest for more evidence of the bird's existence, and scientists have been examining the video frame by frame and debating whether it really depicts an ivory-billed woodpecker or just a more common, similar-looking pileated woodpecker.