Birds were "the objects of my greatest delight," wrote John James Audubon (1785–1851), founder of modern ornithology and one of the world's greatest bird painters. His masterpiece, The Birds of America depicts almost five hundred North American bird species, each image—lifelike and life size—rendered in vibrant color. Audubon was also an explorer, a woodsman, a hunter, an entertaining and prolific writer, and an energetic self-promoter.

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A New York Times Notable book about Audubon's voyage to capture Birds of America is a "brilliantly insightful and ravishingly sensuous tale of adventure." (Booklist) In this atmospheric and enthralling novel, Katherine Govier tells the story of the world's greatest living bird artist as he finally understands the paradox embedded in his art: that the act of creation is also an act of destruction. Running two steps ahead of the bailiff,...

A beguiling novel that does for contemporary Kenya and its 1,000 species of birds what Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies Detective series does for Botswana For the past three years, the widower Mr. Malik has been secretly in love with Rose Mbikwa, a woman who leads the weekly bird walks sponsored by the East African Ornithological Society. Reserved and honorable, Malik wouldn't be noticed by a bystander in a Nairobi street-except perhaps to comment...

Chronicles the life and career of ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice who devoted more than eighty years to studying and writing about birds. Also includes tips and activities for readers to become bird watchers in their own right.

A biography of the nineteenth-century ornithologist and artist famous for his accurate painting of birds and animals.

On Bourbon Island off the coast of Madagascar, a French ornithologist and his assistant are caught up in an adventure involving slavery, colonialism, and the last days of the great pirates. Includes historical notes.