John James Audubon spent years hiking through forests, swamps, and prairies to find and paint every bird in North America. Born on April 26, 1785, he was not a trained scientist. He was an artist with a passion for the natural world. His book, The Birds of America, contains 435 hand-painted images of birds shown at life size. Some pages are over three feet tall. What makes Audubon special for readers is not just his art but his writing. He kept detailed journals describing each bird's behavior. He wrote about how the wild turkey strutted through autumn leaves. He described how the great blue heron stood perfectly still, waiting for fish. His vivid descriptions helped people who had never visited a forest feel like they were standing in one. Audubon's work also served as a warning. He noticed that some birds were becoming harder to find. The Carolina parakeet and the passenger pigeon, both of which he painted, are now extinct. His detailed records of these lost species remain some of the best evidence of what they looked like alive.