John James Audubon Birds Coloring Book

The paintings that John James Audubon created for The Birds of America documented American birds like never before. Audubon was an innovative artist and naturalist who searched all over the United States to draw as many birds as he could find. His dazzling life-sized watercolors, which showed birds within their habitats, were the models for a series of engravings that were printed, colored by hand, and sent out in batches to his subscribers. Today, all 435 bird watercolor models are in the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

You’ll find twenty-two of Audubon’s bird images in this coloring book. They are shown as small reproductions on the inside front and back covers. When you color in these pictures, you might want to copy his colors, or you might decide to give the birds colors they’ve never had before! The last page of this book is blank so that you can draw and color your own bird picture. Maybe it will be of a bird you see in your backyard or on your street. Or maybe you’ll make up a bird out of your imagination! Will it still have two legs and two wings?

Images

1. Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
   
2. Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens)
   
3. American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)
   
4. Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
   
5. Purple Gallinule (Porphyrula martinica)
   
6. Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata)
   
7. Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata)
   
8. Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
   
9. Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli), Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri), Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica), Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana)
   
10. Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)
    
11. Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus)
    
12. 12. Nashville Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla)
    
13. Northern Parula (Parula americana
    
14. Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) and Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)
    
15. Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)
    
16. Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus)
    
17. Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)
    
18. Townsend’s Warbler (Dendroica townsendi), Audubon’s Warbler (Dendroica coronata auduboni), Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides), Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), Black-throated Gray Warbler (Dendroica nigrescens), and Hermit Warbler (Dendroica occidentalis)
    
19. White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
    
20. King Eider (Somateria spectabilis)
    
21. Blue-headed Quail-dove (Starnoenas cyanocephala)
    
22. Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
    

Soft cover book with staple binding.

48 pages with 22 images to color

Size: 8½ x 11 in.

Coloring pages are blank on the back so they can be cut out and displayed.

Published with the New-York Historical Society