Talk:The Birds of America

Moved Stark info
I've moved the information about the copy held by the Stark Museum to the Public Exhibition section from the Recent Sales section because the Stark copy has not been the subject of a recent sale (Mr Stark bought the copy in 1954). I deleted the claim that the Stark Museum "is believed to have the most valuable copy" because the referenced article does not make that claim. The article's author thinks "it would probably fetch even more", but neither the museum's director nor any expert say so. I also deleted the claim that the Stark's copy contains Audubon's 'original additions' because a close reading of the article referenced plainly says that the pencil marks "may have been made by the artist." 80.42.156.161 (talk) 18:27, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Changes to opening paragraphs
I've made several small changes to the opening paragraphs. The opening sentence did read, "The Birds of America is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing paintings and scientific description of a wide variety of birds of the United States." I changed paintings to illustrations (because they are prints, not paintings) and deleted scientific description (because there is no text in these volumes other than on the title pages). I also inserted two commas in the second paragraph to make clear(er) that it's not the engraving plates that measured 39 x 26 inches. Finally, I added -1838 to the info box to indicate that the books were printed over a course of years, not just 1827. 80.42.156.161 (talk) 19:29, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia at the British Library
Hey, I see that the British Library is now cutting and pasting their text from Wikipedia! See this page:   (Sadly they didn't do a nice job of cutting and pasting.)  Remember when institutions like that used to be the source of information? I'm not sure what they think they are doing by slapping a copyright notice on the page. 212.139.249.88 (talk) 18:03, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Mystery birds
Audubon's "mystery birds" have received a fair amount of attention; should there be a section? ...or at least a mention somewhere? -- Examples: ~E 74.60.29.141 (talk) 09:18, 1 October 2012 (UTC)
 * http://tailsofbirding.blogspot.com/2011/03/small-headed-flycatcher.html
 * http://www.dvoc.org/CassiniaOnLine/Cassinia70/C70_22_24.pdf

British English
There's a hidden template asking editors to use British English. This is obviously an American subject, with a French-American author. Is there a reason this article shouldn't use American English? Joefromrandb (talk) 11:27, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Criticism of some of his engravings

 * http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/strange-bird/
 * http://www.audubon.org/news/john-james-audubon-crazy-wrong-or-neither - extensive critiques of Audobons mystery species


 * Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 16:43, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 16:43, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Contributors
A section should be added to this page acknowledging the contributors to Birds of America. The project was not Audubon's alone, with major contributions being made by Robert Havell Jr., Maria Martin Bachman, George Lehman, and Joseph Mason. Mcwallace497 (talk) 20:18, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Blog post from New York City Municipal Archives: "Birds of America"
December 9, 2022 blog post discussing the acquisition and ultimate disposition of New York City's Birds of America https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2022/12/9/birds-of-america

—CmdrDan (talk) 19:15, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

Recent printings
This article describes the early publication history of the book and sales of those folios and plates, but makes no mention of later reprints of the plates, such as the "baby elephant folio" by Roger Tory and Virginia Marie Peterson. Possibly notable on its own for ordering the plates more sensibly and according to newer scientific consensus, but why not at least mention that in addition to being available through various collections the whole series is printed regularly by the Audubon Society? Recon rabbit  02:24, 3 March 2024 (UTC)