Two feet tall, the imperial woodpecker of Mexico once reigned as the largest woodpecker in the world. But aggressive logging and even poisoning by the lumber companies in its Sierra Madre habitat is thought to have driven the bird into extinction sometime in the mid-20th century.
For decades it was believed that this star of the avian world had disappeared without a trace, with no photograph or film to document its existence. But this week, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology announced that a film was indeed available for viewing by the public.
The discovery of the woodpecker film dates to the 1990s, when Martjan Lammertink, a woodpecker expert and researcher at theCornell Lab of Ornithology, found a reference to a film in which the bird appeared in an old letter in Cornell’s archives. The letter mentioned that Dr. William L. Rhein, a dentist and an amateur bird enthusiast, had shot a home movie of the bird in 1956.
Dr. Lammertink tracked down Dr. Rhein in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and they watched it together.
The film remained in Dr. Rhein’s possession until he died in 1999. In 2005, a nephew donated it to Cornell. In the years after, researchers had the film digitally restored and then traveled to Mexico to locate the site where it was shot, which had since been heavily logged.
The idea was to witness what had happened to the land and to see if any traces of the imperial woodpecker could be found. None remained.
In the 16-millimeter color film, the woodpecker goes about its business at a distance, like a celebrity being unknowingly stalked by an avid fan. In poorly lighted scenes, the bird flies on majestic wings and climbs and forages in a dead durango pine. In a way, it’s a haunting performance — a reminder of life lost and the folly of man.
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