Native to the bottomland hardwood and temperate coniferous forests of Cuba and the Southern United States, the last universally accepted sighting of an American ivory-billed woodpecker was in 1944, while the last Cuban member of this species was spotted in 1987. Many subsequent sightings of this bird --- known to be John James Audobon's favorite species --- have been reported, leading to ongoing claims of rediscovery. Thought to be extinct due to widespread habitat destruction by logging, they once lived on larvae and wild fruits such as hickory nuts and persimmons. They were historically important to Native American groups from the Great Lakes and Great Plains regions, who used their bills for trade and ceremonial crafts. One of the largest woodpeckers in the world, this species had a wingspan of up to thirty inches (seventy-six centimeters). Nancy Tanner, the wife of James Taylor Tanner --- the ornithologist often credited as authoring the definitive study on the ivory-billed woodpecker --- described the magic of encountering a roosting female: She looked huge. Her shining black-and-white plumage, white bill, and bright yellow eyes made her very conspicuous. In the wake of Tanner's study, several other narratives about searching for this dying species came to press, including Tim Gallagher's The Grail Bird (2005) and Stephen Lyn Bales' Ghost Birds (2010). In September 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that the species should be declared extinct --- their decision on the matter is due in the coming months.