The Birds of America Blog

Plate 96 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Columbia Jay. 

Detail of Plate 84 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Blue-grey Fly-catcher, now more commonly called the Blue-grey Gnat-catcher. 

Plate 95 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Yellow-poll Warbler, now more commonly known as the Palm Warbler.

Detail of Plate 83 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the House Wren.

Plate 93 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Sea-side Finch.

Detail of Plate 82 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Whip-poor-will.

Plate 92 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Pigeon-hawk, now known as the Merlin.

Detail of Plate 81 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Fish Hawk or Osprey.

Plate 91 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Broad-winged Hawk.

Detail of Plate 80 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Prairie Titlark, now more commonly called the Water Pipit. This is another one of those 'little brown birds' that don't wow people, but this painting does demonstrate Audubon's talent for showing how extraordinary the ordinary can be. 

Plate 90 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Black and White Creeper, now more commonly known as the Black and White Warbler. 

Detail of Plate 79 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Tyrant Fly-catcher.  This one is carefully holding the bee it caught away from his body so as not to get stung. There are many Tyrant Fly-catchers. This one is the Eastern Kingbird. 

Plate 89 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Nashville Warbler. 

Detail of Plate 78 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Great Carolina Wren, now more often called simply the Carolina Wren. This cocky little guy is proclaiming himself king of the flower spike. 

Plate 88 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Autumnal Warbler, now thought to be immature Bay-breasted Warblers. Their showing up at a certain time of year parallels the Winter Hawk plumage mistake Audubon made. (This isn't a criticism of Audubon. He certainly didn't have the tools or knowledge base of today's ornithologists.)

Detail of Plate 77 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the Belted Kingfisher. 

Plate 87 of The Birds of America by John Audubon, the threatened Florida Jay, now the Florida Scrub Jay. It's estimated that only about 6000 of these beautiful birds are left.