Flipping the Bird Friday

Duke University Libraries will be turning the pages of the Birds of America on the first Friday of every month! We welcome you to stop by and watch-what bird will be next?

Birds of America is one of the greatest undertakings in the history of both art and ornithology. Almost 200 years after its publication, it remains a primary resource for scientists and scholars. This four-volume, double-elephant-folio edition on handmade paper measures three feet tall and two feet wide and comprises 435 hand-colored prints impressed from copperplate engravings. Of the original 175 to 200 complete sets, 125 have survived. Nine species of those depicted have since gone extinct.