To say I enjoyed The Birds Audubon Missed, by Kenn Kaufman (2024) would be an extreme understatement. I had a great time reading it and must admit I put off important things like Master Naturalist meeting minutes and knitting to keep reading.
I guess I’ve become one of his (no doubt) many fans as I read along, because I admired his pluck in just taking off and hitchhiking across the US in search of birds during his teens and twenties while I was looking at birds only on rare escapes from university classrooms. He got the education I wanted, deep in my little naturalist soul.
The other thing I most admire about Kaufman is his embrace of non-polarized thinking. In the book, he lays out many criticisms of John James Audubon’s dishonesty, appropriation of others’ work, errors of judgment, exaggeration, and ethics. At the same time he reminds the reader that nonetheless, Audubon was an extraordinary artist who contributed much to the increase of scientific knowledge about birds of North America in Europe and among people of European descent. Yeah, Kaufman often points out that there was vast bird knowledge on the part of millions of people who already lived there. What a good guy.
The book taught me so much about history from an avian point of view, so now I know who all those people are who’ve historically appeared in bird names (those won’t be around much longer, however). I also learned a great deal about how bird classification has been refined in the past few centuries and continues to be worked on.
Just last night I read a long section on tyrant flycatchers and how they’ve come to be differentiated mostly by their calls. Then this morning I went out and heard many of the birds discussed, thanks to Merlin’s skillful algorithms. As a bonus I learned how the Northern Parula got such an odd (to me) name for a warbler. It is in the order Parulidae. Parrula means bird in Katin. Its Latin name is Setophaga americana, which comes out to American moth-eater.
As you have probably inferred by now, I got a lot of nuggets out of this fascinating resource. Also enjoyable were Kaufman’s asides on how he tried to learn to paint in the style of Audubon for the book’s illustrations. It wasn’t much fun. Nor was it really necessary, since Kaufman is a renowned painter of birds, in addition to writing many bird guides.
I’d recommend that anyone with an interest in birds, history of science, or art history would enjoy The Birds Audubon Missed. But it’s written so well that anyone who enjoys learning would come to treasure it as much as I have!
What a great book to finish after a weekend on birding!
The Hermits' Rest 