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Chuck Hunter has been doing yeoman's work over on FB for awhile now filling in detail and nuance on the IBWO when he finds time and need to do so. His willingness to share knowledge, experience, and patience is APPRECIATED! Here at the blog I'm always waiting for something fresh, credible, and significant in the way of new evidence, so I don't much report or repeat historical stuff. BUT, for any who missed it, I will draw attention to this recent long post of his:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/179784035376368/permalink/28338625585732169/
...and in the comment section Chuck followed with several more longish, interesting responses (they can get buried and lost so you need to search them out). If you tied all these postings together you'd almost have a mini-booklet on IBWO history with more detail on several matters than perhaps any current IBWO book offers. It is interesting stuff, though again mostly historical -- it reaffirms that the IBWO surely survived into the 1950s/60s, well past the 1944 date so many skeptics use as a demarcation for its survival. None of this can tell us if the species still persists in 2026 (even if we could 'prove' the bird's existence in the Big Woods in 2004-5, it could still be extinct by now). BUT it does all point to the species' oft-cited resilience in general and the human tendency to write things off prematurely. What I think of as the modern or recent era of IBWO claims began around 1999 to the present day -- and I'll reiterate what I've said before: for the skeptics' typical view (that the bird never made it into the 21st century) to be true, 100% of all claims made in the last 25 years must be wrong/false (there is no wiggle room). If just one of those claims (let alone more than one) is true then there is quite a story that yet waits to be told.
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