New thread started by Kenn Kaufman

Kenn Kaufman has kicked off an Ivory-bill discussion on the "Frontiers of Identification" listserv:

The analysis by Sibley et al is new, but it's based on information and images that have been available for almost 11 months, and again I find it remarkable that this listserve has been so silent about the evidence. Then again, there has been a remarkable amount of fervor surrounding the initial report, with massive numbers of people believing simply because they WANTED TO BELIEVE, and attacking anyone who expressed any skepticism. As long ago as last June, when I mentioned in conversations that I thought the video showed a Pileated Woodpecker, some people reacted violently and accused me of being anti-conservation, or worse. With passions running so high, many I.D. experts may have decided to lie low and stay out of the controversy.

So I have to commend David Sibley et al for coming forward with their analysis. If you know David, you know that not only is he a genius, he's also modest and very quiet. He has no reason to seek publicity, nothing to gain by sparking controversy -- if anything, the wrath of "the believers" could hurt the sales of his books. So it took courage for him to go public with his doubts. Here's a challenge to the rest of you I.D. experts, playing it safe on the sidelines. Read the papers, look at the video, let us know if you detect any points that the papers published so far have missed. I have a lot of respect for all the authors of both papers, but I have to say that I still think the video shows the underside of the wings of a Pileated Woodpecker flying away above the plane of the camera. If you can prove me wrong, I'd love to hear about it.

Kenn's initial posting has already resulted in some well-reasoned responses--this might be a very welcome change for you if you've visited the BirdForum Ivory-bill threads in recent months.

(To the anonymous commenter who pointed out this new thread--thank you!!)