VIDEO: ‘Endangered species: red-cockaded woodpecker’

You don’t have to travel to the depths of an exotic jungle to come into contact with endangered species. Several of them, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, are native species of Louisiana.

Teetering on the edge of extinction since the 1970s, only an estimated 14,000 red-cockaded woodpeckers currently exist. Major efforts are being taken by bird fanatics and wildlife conservatists across the U.S. to save the black and white speckled woodpecker, whose eggs have a 10-day incubation period and are highly protected by our federal government. Local wildlife refuge Big Branch Marsh in Lacombe, Louisiana, is one of the organizations working to conserve the species, an effort which has culminated in 47 locally surviving birds.

Kevin Korson, a film student in the Department of Film and Theater at the University of New Orleans, spoke with representatives at Big Branch and chronicled the fleeting bird species firsthand in a short documentary feature.