Pewit Flycatcher (Muscicapa Fusca, Gmel.), Volume 2, Plate 120

Painted in Louisiana in 1825.

This is the species Audubon used for the first-ever bird banding experiment. In 1803, while living on his father’s property Mill Grove in Pennsylvania, he found Eastern Phoebes nesting in a cave. As he described the encounter, he became friends with the normally shy birds. In his essay, he praised them for the model of “parental affection” they exhibited. In reality, it was their obvious affection for him that deeply affected him-a kind of reflection of the love he felt for Lucy Bakewell, his future wife, and the hope he was beginning to harbor for the creation of his own family. Audubon tied silver threads to the legs of young phoebes, and the following spring his delight knew no bounds when he caught two birds with the threads still on their legs-a kind of ornithological umbilical cord, literally linking him to the birds that he felt had become an intimate part of his life.

From John James Audubon’s Ornithological Biography

Several days in succession I went to the spot, and saw with pleasure that as my visits increased in frequency, the birds became more familiarized to me, and, before a week had elapsed, the Pewees and myself were quite on terms of intimacy. It was now the 10th of April; the spring was forward that season, no more snow was to be seen, Redwings and Grackles were to be found here and there. The Pewees, I observed, began working at their old nest. Desirous of judging for myself, and anxious to enjoy the company of this friendly pair, I determined to spend the greater part of each day in the cave. My presence no longer alarmed either of them. They brought a few fresh materials, lined the nest anew, and rendered it warm by adding a few large soft feathers of the common goose, which they found strewn along the edge of the water in the creek. There was a remarkable and curious twittering in their note while both sat on the edge of the nest at those meetings, and which is never heard on any other occasion. It was the soft, tender expression, I thought, of the pleasure they both appeared to anticipate of the future. Their mutual caresses, simple as they might have seemed to another, and the delicate manner used by the male to please his mate, rivetted my eyes on these birds, and excited sensations which I can never forget.