Highland Park News Ivory-bill article

There's an Ivory-bill article at the Highland Park News here. Below are some excerpts with my comments:

News of its possible rediscovery made the front page of The New York Times and stirred extensive debate about the accuracy of the sighting.

The initial news was not about "possible" rediscovery. John Fitzpatrick said it was "dead solid confirmed".

The bird [red-headed woodpecker], though not endangered, is experiencing a decline in numbers so much so that it could be headed toward extinction, Fitzpatrick said.

The sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker offers hope and encouragement for the red-headed woodpecker.

Regarding the red-headed woodpecker, I think it's far too early to play the extinction card. According to this link, the Audubon red-headed woodpecker population estimate is 2.5 million birds.

The Conservancy, along with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Arkansas Department of Natural Resources, owns the 500,000 acres of deep-water swamp and floodplain forest where the bird was discovered. To create the type of contiguous habitat the species needs, another 200,000 acres must be preserved.

Ok, we're starting with 500,000 acres (781 square miles) of habitat. Given that a pair's Singer Tract range in the breeding season was 4 square miles, that 500,000 acres could conceivably harbor 195 breeding pairs. Now we're saying that that's not nearly enough acreage--we need an additional 200,000 acres (312 square miles)?!

Of course, the Big Woods habitat is not nearly as good as the Singer Tract habitat, but is it really that much worse?

To me, it seems a tad premature to talk about the need for an additional 312 square miles of habitat for this species. After all, the "best" proof we have for its existence is a video so poor that even a believer allows it may show an albinistic Wood duck.