Plate 367: Band-tailed Pigeon

by John James Audubon

Select Size

Shipping for frames only available within U.S.

frames hide

Add Custom Frame

Learn More

Shipping for frames only available within U.S.

Add Custom Frame

Learn More

Shipping for frames only available within U.S.

Add Custom Frame

Learn More

Shipping for frames only available within U.S.

Add Custom Frame

Learn More

Shipping for frames only available within U.S.

Select size to add art to your cart

Successfully added to cart! Click here to view your cart.

Artist Statement

"The Band-tailed Pigeon is called by the Chinook Indians 'akoigh homin.' It ranges from the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains across to the Columbia river, where it is abundant. It arrived in 1836 in very great numbers, on the 17th of April, and continued in large flocks while breeding. Their breeding places are on the banks of the river. The eggs are placed on the ground, under small bushes, without a nest, where numbers congregate together. The eggs are two, of a yellowish-white colour, inclining to bluish-white, with minute white spots at the great end. These Pigeons feed upon the berries of the black elder and the buds of the balsam poplar.

This large and fine Pigeon, always moving about in flocks, keeps in Oregon only in the thick forests of the Columbia and the Wahlamet, and during the summer is more particularly abundant in the alluvial groves of the latter river, where throughout that season we constantly heard their cooing, or witnessed the swarming flocks feeding on the berries of the elder tree, those of the Great Cornel (Cornus Nuttalli), or, before the ripening of berries, on the seed-germs or the young pods of the balsam poplar. The call of this species is somewhat similar to that of the Carolina Dove, but is readily distinguishable, sounding like a double suppressed syllable, as h'koo, h'koo, h'koo, h'koo, uttered at the usual intervals, and repeated an hour or two at a time, chiefly in the morning and evening."

- from Birds of America

Details

+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available

Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches to allow for framing.

Medium:

Museo PR

Edition Structure:
10"x8" | edition of 20
14"x11" | edition of 200
20"x16" | edition of 50
30"x24" | edition of 10

John James Audubon

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America, but for half a century he was the young country’s dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists are measured. Audubon was born in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and his French mistress. Early on, he was raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Audubon, in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in... Read More
birds, nature, drawing, and music. In 1803, at the age of 18, he was sent to America, in part to escape conscription into the Emperor Napoleon’s army. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied, and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell. While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year. Audubon spent more than a decade as a businessman, eventually traveling down the Ohio River to western Kentucky—then the frontier—and setting up a dry-goods store in Henderson. He continued to draw birds as a hobby, amassing an impressive portfolio. While in Kentucky, Lucy gave birth to two sons, Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse, as well as a daughter who died in infancy. Audubon was quite successful in business for a while, but hard times hit, and in 1819 he was briefly jailed for bankruptcy. With no other prospects, Audubon set off on his epic quest to depict America’s avifauna, with nothing but his gun, artist’s materials, and a young assistant. Floating down the Mississippi, he lived a rugged hand-to-mouth existence in the South while Lucy earned money as a tutor to wealthy plantation families. In 1826, he sailed with his partly finished collection to England. The American Woodsman was literally an overnight success. His life-size, highly dramatic bird portraits, along with his embellished descriptions of wilderness life, hit just the right note at the height of the Continent’s Romantic era. Audubon found a printer for the Birds of America, first in Edinburgh, then London, and later collaborated with the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray on the Ornithological Biographies—life histories of each of the species in the work. The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled the country several more times in search of birds, and settled in New York City. Audubon’s story is one of triumph over adversity; his accomplishment is destined for the ages. He encapsulates the spirit of young America, when the wilderness was limitless and beguiling. He was a person of legendary strength and endurance, as well as a keen observer of birds and nature. - National Audubon Society
See All Editions