The Birds of America

The Birds of America by John James Audubon is one of the best known and most valuable natural history books ever published. The original Double Elephant Folio edition has 435 hand-coloured prints of engravings made from Audubon’s original paintings. Apart from being of the highest artistic quality, Audubon’s illustrations were exceptional in that they portrayed the birds life-size in natural positions and in their native habitats.

This edition has been created by disbinding one of the two original sets held by the Natural History Museum, London, and then photographing it using the latest digital technology. It includes all of Audubon’s 435 bird images, reproduced as large as possible on the page and with the original numbering and captions faithfully recreated.

The culmination of over twelve years of work, Audubon’s masterpiece features some of the most stunning bird paintings of all time, from the great crested flycatcher and pin tailed duck to the common American swan. One of the most valuable natural history books ever published, it shows birds in natural positions and in their native habitats.

There is an introduction by world-renowned bird artist and author David Allen Sibley, whose The Sibley Guide to Birds is considered by many to be the most comprehensive guide for the identification of birds in North America.

About the Author:

John James Audubon was a naturalist and painter and is considered one of the greatest bird artists of all time. Born in Haiti in 1785, he spent much of his life travelling North America observing, catching and drawing birds and animals in remarkable detail. Using a variety of materials to create a highly dramatic style, he painted almost 500 species of the 700 or so regularly occurring North American bird species. He also painted other animals but it is his life-size illustrations of birds that he is most famous for.