COLLECTION OF FRANK H. MCCLUNG MUSEUM

Black-capped Chickadee by John James Audubon. Black-capped chickadees breed above 4,000 feet in the Smokies. Look for them in the high elevations between Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome.

COLLECTION OF FRANK H. MCCLUNG MUSEUM

Eastern Screech Owl by Mark Catesby. Called “the little owl” by Catesby because it resembled the little owl in Europe, this bird is actually an eastern screech-owl — a fairly common resident below 4,000 feet in the Smokies.

COLLECTION OF FRANK H. MCCLUNG MUSEUM

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Cedar Waxwing, Purple Finch, Yellow-throated Vireo by Alexander Wilson. In the Smokies, red-bellied woodpeckers prefer partially cleared, low-elevation woodlands at picnic areas, campgrounds and visitors’ centers. Fruit-eating cedar waxwings roam all elevations. Insect-eating yellow-throated warblers nest near lowelevation pines or sycamores. Seed-eating purple finches are winter visitors.

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To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the University of Tennessee's McClung Museum is exhibiting antique bird prints featuring 117 of the 246 bird species found in the Smokies.

The museum's collection includes hand-colored copper engravings and lithographs by three of America's early naturalists and most famous bird artists - Mark Catesby, Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon.

The three traveled widely by foot, horseback and boat as they observed, collected, named and painted nearly all of eastern North America's bird species. Their beautiful 18th- and 19th-century prints are the first published illustrations of many North American birds.

Mark Catesby 1682 - 1749

Englishman Mark Catesby - known as the "Colonial Audubon" - was one of the first great naturalists to explore North America.

After first visiting colonial Virginia in 1712, he later traveled three years making notes and drawings of the flora and fauna of the southeastern United States. Catesby's hand-colored engravings illustrate 109 bird species in his two-volume "Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands." The first volume was published in 1731.

The charming prints depict many familiar Smoky Mountain birds. You might not recognize Catesby's colonial bird names - names like fieldfare of Carolina, blew jay, chattering plover, crested bittern, round-crested duck, little owl, black-capped fly-catcher, the tyrant, the chatterer, the large lark, yellow-throated creeper and snow-bird.

Other names are familiar - a whip-poor-will beneath a red-berried ginseng plant, a humming bird feeding on red trumpet creeper flowers and a mock-bird in a flowering dogwood tree. Catesby's plant images - just as impressive as his birds - depict each bird's habitat. His bird sightings, as portrayed in his art, are remarkably similar to what birdwatchers see today nearly 300 years later.

Alexander Wilson 1766 - 1813

Scot emigrant Alexander Wilson's meticulous work and detailed observations earned him the title "Father of American Ornithology."

On travels in the eastern United States, the self-taught artist observed or collected and painted or drew 320 birds of 262 different species.

Wilson's prints often feature several different bird species on each hand-colored engraving.

Though not as well-known (except to ornithologists) as Catesby and Audubon, Wilson's contributions to science were very valuable. His ambitious nine-volume work "American Ornithology" - with hand-colored illustrations and detailed written descriptions for each species - was published from 1808 to 1814.

John James Audubon 1785 - 1851

John James Audubon first came to the United States in 1803 when his father sent him from France to manage a recently purchased farm near Philadelphia. He was soon more interested in watching, collecting and sketching birds than managing a business.

Audubon often worked with recently killed birds which he wired into life-like postures posed against graph paper. After tracing the original size and shape onto paper nearly 30 inches wide by 40 inches tall, he painted near life-size images of even the largest birds, like swans and cranes.

He explored most of eastern North America between 1820 and 1838. He painted nearly 500 North American bird species, often incorporating each bird's habitat into the background. Audubon's bird art was first published in "The Birds of America" in the 1830s.

Audubon struggled to pay for expensive copper engraving plates and to sell subscriptions for the large hand-colored prints. In 1844, a new octavo edition with small, more-affordable colored prints became available. A set of five unbound prints in a folder sold for one dollar.

Subscribers collected the sets published as a series over time.

Today, Audubon's name is associated with some of the finest bird art ever created. Audubon's name is also a symbol for bird conservation and protection around the world.

Marcia Davis may be reached at 865-330-BIRD (2473).

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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