Red-headed woodpecker with yellow bellied, hairy and downy woodpeckers.
Hand colored engraving, after a drawing by Alexander Wilson.
In: Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology, or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1808).
Alexander Wilson’s project to illustrate all the birds of North America preceded John James Audubon’s by a decade. Wilson’s work sought to bring his readers to "a contemplation of the grandeur, harmony and wonderful variety of nature" through engravings colored from nature and through "biographies: of birds that go well beyond mere description."" Wilson had no inkling that the birds he lovingly recorded might someday vanish. In the early 1800s Wilson called the red-headed woodpecker the most universally known bird in North America. From the 1940s to 2005, the populations of these birds had shrunk 66%, mainly from the loss of nesting cavities and food sources such as acorns and beechnuts.
Bequest: James Bowdoin III.