By Dan Chapman, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. (Originated from Sep. 18--A redheaded woodpecker may ultimately bring Mercedes-Benz home to)

South Carolina's bid for the $300 million investment could be endangered by eight rare and federally protected woodpeckers which call the 1,200-acre site in Summerville home. S.C. officials promised to take care of the bird for Mercedes.

But the environmentally conscious Germans may fly away from the bad publicity the red-cockaded woodpecker might bring, Mercedes watchers say.

Whether bad press is enough to scare off the Germans is uncertain. The prospect of landing Mercedes in North Carolina on the wings of a bird, however, was enough for one industrial recruiter to quip that the woodpecke should replace the cardinal as the state bird. Jokes aside, Mercedes may …