Columbia Jays, John James Audubon

This issuance commemorates John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and artist. Born in present-day Haiti, Audubon was raised near Nantes, France. His family emigrated to the United States in the early 1800s to avoid the Napoleonic Wars. He sought to paint and document every bird in North America. Much of his artwork was completed with watercolors and pastel crayons instead of the popular oil paint. The stamp features an image of two black-throated magpie-jays, also known as Collie’s magpie-jays, though Audubon’s original artwork claimed they were “Columbia jays.”