Belted Kingfisher

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Belted Kingfisher

Artist John James Audubon American, 1785-1851

Date1830

DimensionsPlate: H. 25 7/8 in. (65.7 cm): W. 20 5/8 in. (52.4 cm)

MediumEtching and aquatint

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of an anonymous donor

Object number

1958.1

Not on View

Collections

Works on Paper

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, For the Birds, April 13-October 14, 2012.Label TextCommon near bodies of water across the United States, the Belted Kingfisher is unusual in that the female of the species is more colorful than the male—it is the female’s markings that give the “belted” to the species’ common name. The kingfisher was the first bird with which Audubon used his innovative method of inserting a wire armature into a bird skin in order to pose it in a more lifelike way than had been previously common for bird illustrators (Audubon and his peers did not have access to high-powered lenses and cameras with which to study birds and had to procure dead specimens in order to examine them in detail). He created a composition with three kingfishers—two male and one female—all in different active poses against a detailed landscape.