Birds of America. Elephant Folio. First Edition Engravings with Original Hand-Color. London: Robert Havell, 1827 - 1838. 26 x 39 inches... John James Audubon’s arresting image of the Carolina Parrot is a bittersweet work of art. These stunning birds were, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the only parrot native to North America above Mexico. They are unfortunately now extinct, and only known to us through artists like Audubon and a handful of taxidermic specimens.

Audubon depicted several species of now-extinct birds in his iconic Birds of America, including the Carolina Parrot and the Passenger Pigeon. While Audubon described Passenger Pigeons as being so numerous that they eclipsed the sun when flying as a flock, he noted that the number of Carolina Parrots was beginning to dwindle even in his time. In Ornithological Biography he stated, “Our Parakeets are very rapidly diminishing in number; and in some districts, where twenty-five years ago they were plentiful, scarcely any are now to be seen.... I should think that along the Mississippi there is now not half the number that existed fifteen years ago.” Unfortunately, the vibrant birds were considered a pest by farmers and were killed in large numbers to prevent them from ruining crops. This slaughter, combined with deforestation throughout their range and the popularity of their feathers in the millinery trade, led to the decline of the Parrot. The species was rarely seen outside of Florida after 1860, and by the 1920s it was considered extinct” (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).