Birds of America may refer to:
The Birds of America is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and London.
The work consists of hand-coloured, life-size prints, made from engraved plates, measuring around 39 by 26 inches (99 by 66 cm). It includes images of six now-extinct birds: Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck, great auk, Esquimaux curlew, and pinnated grouse. The plant-life backgrounds of some 50 of the bird studies were painted by Audubon's assistant Joseph Mason and reproduced uncredited in the book.
About 1820, around the age of 35, Audubon declared his intention to paint every bird in North America. In his bird art, he mainly forsook oil paint, the medium of serious artists of the day, in favour of watercolours and pastel crayons (and occasionally pencil, charcoal, chalk, gouache, and pen and ink). As early as 1807, he developed a method of using wires and threads to hold dead birds in lifelike poses while he drew them.
Birds of America (1998) is a collection of short stories by American writer Lorrie Moore. The stories in this collection originally appeared in The New Yorker, Elle, The New York Times, and The Paris Review. The story "People Like That Are the Only People Here" won an O. Henry Award in 1998. The book became a New York Times bestseller, a rarity for a short story collection. The book was included in the New York Times Book Review books of the year list in 1998. Winner of the Irish Times international fiction prize. A Village Voice book of the year (1998). Winner of the Salon Book Award.
Birds of America contains the following short stories:
A 40 something year old, washed up Hollywood actress moves to Chicago and takes up residence at a Days Inn. She is unsatisfied with her what her life has become. She has missed the opportunity, she feels, to have a partner and children. She is alone and unhappy. She starts a relationship with a local car mechanic who she ultimately does not respect, but is still upset when he ultimately leaves her.