Audubon's Birds of Florida

Audubon's Birds of Florida fills an important knowledge gap of the artist's travels and observations in my home state. Clay Henderson adds his own detailed perspective to selected Audubon writings about birds the artist would have seen and heard in Florida. Lovers of birds and wildlife art are familiar with Audubon's prints and the way his work helped change views of nature. This book reproduces the familiar plates but offers so much more. Henderson, whose previous books demonstrate his skill as a writer, updates and interprets our understanding of Audubon with thoughtful essays and the insights of an admired Florida naturalist and historian.

Eric Draper, Former Florida Park Service Director

I am so astounded by Clay Henderson's latest book, Audubon's Birds of Florida, published in collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art in Daytona Beach! Clay's description of John James Audubon's adventures in Florida reads like a travel novel, full of action and adversities, depicting the people and places he visited and the trials and difficulties of his treks and voyages across primitive Florida. Additionally, the prints of Audubon's birds are vibrant, with startling colors, true to the original plates produced by Havell. Each species plate is accompanied by the details of its production, where the birds were collected, who added plants or backgrounds. This brings home the process and care that went into each portrait.

Working in the field, without the benefit of modern technology, communication, or convenience of travel, Audubon's skill and biological knowledge shine in each species depiction as he worked to bring the birds to us lifelike. Everyone will enjoy this book and appreciate it as a new look at the enormous artistic product accomplished by Audubon.

Ann Paul, President Tampa Audubon Society

Audubon's Birds of Florida is a wondrous book that features 91 beautiful prints of birds that artist John James Audubon drew during his 1831-32 travels in Florida. Author Clay Henderson recounts Audubon's travels as well, lending new insight into Audubon's vision and the marvelous avian life he found while journeying the length of the peninsula. This is a must for anyone interested in Florida history and birds—a delight for the mind and eyes.

Dr. Leslie Poole, Rollins College

If anyone thought that Clay Henderson's “Forces of Nature” was a one-and-done capstone book, a history of conservation in Florida by one of its major players, they are in for a very pleasant surprise. Henderson has doubled down with his latest book Audubon's Birds of Florida. It is visual and historical homerun.

Drawing on his skills as a lawyer and historian he has put in the work, but his Southern roots allow a narrative style that reminds us that stories are simply facts with a human face. The result is visual and historical delight.

In his work, Henderson eschews hagiography and tells the story of John James Audubon with fairness to the man, his times, his strengths and weaknesses, and the geography of Florida as he found it. Audubon's plates are presented in a visually striking way, with Florida-centric historical contexts that illuminate the images. Henderson's love of his subject and Florida.

Finally, Henderson includes an interview homage to Hyatt and Cici Brown, whose collection of Florida art is the finest in Florida and served as a springboard for his work.

To anyone with a love of Florida history, it is a second spotlight on the role of conservation in that history. The reader is left only to say to the author: “more, Clay, more…keep 'em comin'…"

Rev. Cannon Dr. J. Allison DeFoor, President North Florida Land Trust