This spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to declare the long-elusive ivory-billed woodpecker extinct. It’s a move that’s ruffling a lot of feathers in the birder community.

The black and white woodpecker hasn’t been officially sighted since 1944 — but many ornithologists believe that it’s still alive somewhere.

We hear from Kate Wong, senior editor for evolution and ecology at Scientific American.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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