Wednesday, October 23, 2019

John J. Audubon’s Birds of America

I'm not much of a birder - myopia makes that difficult, but I do enjoy pictures of birds, and John J. Audobon's are classics. Now you can view and download all of the 435 plates in his famous Birds of America.
John James Audubon's Birds of America is a portal into the natural world. Printed between 1827 and 1838, it contains 435 life-size watercolors of North American birds (Havell edition), all reproduced from hand-engraved plates, and is considered to be the archetype of wildlife illustration. Nearly 200 years later, the Audubon prints are coming to life once again, thanks to our vibrant digital library. Roam around below and enjoy one of the most treasured pieces of Audubon's grand and wild legacy. Each print is also available as a free high-resolution download.
Needless to say the prints are gorgeous and the high-resolution scans are huge. Here's one of one of my favourite birds, the blue jay.


3 comments:

Martin R said...

Is it really Birder? This side of the pond Bird Watchers are known as Twitchers

Keith Soltys said...

I probably should have said "bird watchers", but I've been watching a lot of British TV shows and I guess the usage rubbed off. I'm not sure I've ever heard of "twitchers" though.

Martin R said...

The side of the pond I meant was Britain :-). I have never heard Birder used for Bird Watching

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/8328980/Bill-Oddie-twitching-is-a-nerve-racking-business.html