The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 79 ratings

Price: 17.71

Last update: 03-01-2025


About this item

Renowned naturalist Kenn Kaufmanexamines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers to show how what they saw (and what they missed) reflects how we perceive and understand the natural world.

Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science.

The most famous name in the bird world was John James Audubon, who painted spectacular portraits of birds. But although his images were beautiful, creating great art was not his main goal. Instead, he aimed to illustrate (and write about) as many different species as possible, obsessed with trying to outdo his rival, Alexander Wilson. George Ord, a fan and protégé of Wilson, held a bitter grudge against Audubon for years, claiming he had faked much of his information and his scientific claims. A few of Audubon’s birds were pure fiction, and some of his writing was invented or plagiarized. Other naturalists of the era, including Charles Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon), John Townsend, and Thomas Nuttall, also became entangled in the scientific derby, as they stumbled toward an understanding of the natural world—an endeavor that continues to this day.

Despite this intense competition, a few species—including some surprisingly common songbirds, hawks, sandpipers, and more—managed to evade discovery for years. Here, renowned bird expert and artist Kenn Kaufman explores this period in history from a new angle, by considering the birds these people discovered and, especially, the ones they missed. Kaufman has created portraits of the birds that Audubon never saw, attempting to paint them in that artist’s own stunning style, as a way of examining the history of natural sciences and nature art. He shows how our understanding of birds continues to gain clarity, even as some mysteries persist from Audubon’s time until ours.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Ronald M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Not seeing birds that were there
    Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2024
    Kaufman weaves several themes through the text to describe the pioneer ornithologists who first studied North American birds, in addition to Audubon, the work of Catesby, Wilson, Bonaparte, Nutall and Baird is considered. Why did they miss bird species that remain widespread today? Was it because of poor optics?

    In a second thread, Kaufman shows that scientists were just as competitive two hundred years ago as they are today. He describes the race to find, report and name a new species, even if they weren’t really a species at all, The competition was, at times, ruthless as shown in Audubon’s relations with Wilson and Ord.

    Audubon was an ambitious, talented but flawed person. He was willing to claim credit for the discoveries of others. Some of his claims were at the least exaggerated if not actually falsified. Outrageously, he claimed to discover a new Eagle species- the bird of Washington. No one else has ever seen it. Probably a juvenile Eagle. But that claim and painting spurred sales of his Birds of America series in the European market.

    The final thread discusses Kaufman’s attempt to duplicate Audubon’s artistic style in chapters called Interludes. These interludes discuss Audubon’s methods and the engraving and printing of his work. Eventually, Kaufman concludes that each artist must develop a personal style. Kaufman was one the first to use digitally edited images to prepare a bird identification guide. He muses whether Audubon would have used that technology if he were alive today since he quickly adopted the use of lithographs.

    For a birder this is an outstanding book. I’ve debated identification of some of the gulls and sandpipers that puzzled the pioneers. Everyone knows about Audubon, but this book demonstrates that he wasn’t working in isolation. He was a great naturalist and a spectacularly gifted artist.
  • James R. Wagner
    5.0 out of 5 stars Full of interesting facts!
    Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2024
    The history discussed was very interesting and informative. As a long time birder I really enjoyed this and found it informative. It looked at history from a different perspective and didn't sugarcoat the behavior of our birding ancestors. It was a very worthwhile read.
  • Geraldine A. Howard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
    Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024
    The book was interesting and educational.
  • Kevin L. Burrell
    4.0 out of 5 stars great book, disappointing Kindle edition
    Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2024
    Kaufman portrays Audubon with great honesty, the good and the bad, and introduces some other unique characters along the way like Wilson, Bonaparte, Harris, and others. Kaufman also shares his impressive capacity to paint his own birds in the style of Audubon. Unfortunately, the Kindle edition presented all of this art in black-and-white. I have no earthly idea why a book that's focused on art would choose to present it all so blandly. Surprisingly, the plates at the end of the book are in color, as if to say, "See, we could've done them this way. But we didn't. Deal with it." I would love to have interacted with Audubon's and Kaufman's art as it was described in the narrative. This really took away from the experience.
  • mike carpenter
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
    Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2024
    An interesting read, good historical perspective.
  • Olivia C.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2024
    Loyd of info on birdings history including the competition between famous borders over the centuries. Audubon was a very interesting man, a prolific bird painter with a fascinating life. Kaufman captures his essence as well as his style with aplomb.
  • Jane Doe
    5.0 out of 5 stars Author Kenn Kaufman has taken up drawing and painting in the style of J. J. Audubon.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2024
    It was a thoughtfully written book describing the world of birds in the 1800s.
  • Jehoshephat
    2.0 out of 5 stars I prefer straight natural history to novelization
    Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2024
    This struck me as a sort of "meta"-book, more about ornithology and ornithologists than about birds as such. There's also a lot about how "we" look at and think about birds which strikes me as kind of pretentious and selective. I've found many bird guidebooks not very helpful when I look at actual birds in my various neighborhoods, so I've given up on those. The prose here goes on at a very relaxed pace, chatty and quite informal. But again, my constant reaction was "Skip all the sidelights, concentrate on the main story!" Ironically, perhaps, on p. 153 I hit the sentence, "The one universal human superpower is that of self-justification." I'm not at all sure that that's case. Give a few minutes of thought to various religions and philosophies, not to mention scholarly histories, and you'll come up with many, many counterexamples and counter-arguments. But it does seem to apply to the prose found here.

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