Paper on Cuban Ivory-bills, 1948

People sometimes claim that our only Ivory-bill data is from Jim Tanner's Singer Tract (Louisiana) work. Note that we also have data from Allen and Kellogg, which includes information about Florida birds.

There is also an interesting paper on Cuban Ivory-bills by John Dennis, published in The Auk in October 1948--the paper is available here. Dennis' Ivory-bill observations in Cuba are consistent with the published Tanner/Allen/Kellogg observations in many ways, such as the bird's lack of wariness, its noisiness, its generally sedentary nature, etc:

My interest in the fate of the Cuban bird was aroused by Mr. Davis Crompton of Worcester, Massachusetts, who has made several trips to the South in efforts to locate colonies of the American Ivory-bill.
...
The largest number [an informant] saw was a group of six, this in 1941. The group followed him through the woods for some distance, exhibiting great curiosity. In the same year he observed a nesting site in a dead pine. Interestingly enough, a young bird, still unable to fly, was brought to him by some lumbermen. It was fed "white grubs, these being procured by a man who was paid to chop them out of dead pine logs." When the bird was able to fly, it was released. Our informant kept track of several pairs, one of which nested at the same site for two seasons.
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At this point we separated; I made my way to a vantage point where I could watch for birds in flight and Mr. Crompton remained in the same spot to get some rest or sleep after our fatiguing climb. Within fifteen minutes Mr. Crompton was awakened by the calls of an Ivory-bill in near-by trees while, in the mean time, I spotted a second bird engaged in shredding bark from a small pine. Either both these birds were females, as their black crests suggested, or one of them was a female (this we later established) and the other was an immature male.
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While examining the vicinity of the nesting site, I came upon the skull of a woodpecker which was later identified as that of an Ivory-bill.

Cuban Ivory-bills evidently sometimes left hard evidence when they died.

...
Only a few general observations are available on the behavior of the birds at the nesting tree. When we first arrived in the vicinity, the birds appeared somewhat agitated. At no time, however, would I say that they were shy. The agitation manifested itself by considerable vocal activity and by frequent changes of place on the nest. But as the birds became used to our presence, they seemed positively lethargic as they loitered in near-by trees.

But whatever the outcome in regard to the forces at work upon the environment, the few remaining Ivory-bills are in constant danger of being exterminated by humans. For example, early in 1948 a dead bird was seen nailed to the side of a native hut. We found that it was a common practice for the people in this region to take young woodpeckers out of their nest and use them for food.

Dennis' Cuban Ivory-bills in 1948 were evidently subject to some "hunting" pressure, yet, as related above, they were still relatively tame and noisy.