FT262

Even though celebrated American naturalist-artist John James Audubon (1785–1851) produced some of the most spectacular paintings of North American wildlife ever created, he has also stirred up a degree of controversy among ornithologists, because his artwork includes depictions of certain birds that cannot be identified with any species known to present-day science. Most of these feathered mysteries are small, relatively nondescript perching birds (see FT222:42–44), but there is one big (indeed, very big) exception: Washington’s eagle.

Today, science recognises the existence of just two species of eagle in the USA – the bald eagle Haliæetus leucocephalus (a sea eagle), and the golden eagle Aquila chrysætos (a true eagle).