Blue-Winged Yellow Swamp-Warbler

by John James Audubon

This impressive piece of art from renowned ornithologist John James Audubon shows a pair of energetic Blue-Winged Warblers (Vermivora Cyanoptera) captured precisely in their natural environment. Widely known as “Plate 20” in his highly popular Birds of America double-elephant folio edition and named the Blue-Winged Yellow Swamp-Warbler (Plate 111) in the octavo editions, the painting reflects Audubon’s typical style of scientific precision and dramatic beauty.

These birds, recognizable through their dazzling yellow bodies, black eye-lines and their distinct blue-grey wings, can be seen foraging among the branches of a Rose Mallow (Hibiscus). Audubon consciously chose to depict the birds along with these flowers as an accurate representation of the marshes that they inhabit.