Have a budding artist or ornithologist in your home? Tomorrow, April 8th, is #DrawABirdDay and we’re here to provide some avian inspiration!

There are tons of lovely bird illustrations in our books in @BioDivLibrary . Today we'll highlight a few favorites.

We'll give the obvious #DrawABirdDay choice out of the way - John James Audubon! Our copy of "The Birds of America" in @BioDivLibrary is not the famous double-elephant, but smaller, more affordable version w/ text from "Ornithological Biography" : https://s.si.edu/2lQyU0d 

Next up for #DrawABirdDay inspo, John Gould's "The birds of Europe", with many gorgeous illustrations by his wife Elizabeth: https://s.si.edu/2FZBFru 

Learn more about Elizabeth & her role on our blog: https://s.si.edu/2USxcfj 

Pigeons might be prevalent if you're looking out a city window, but we bet you've never seen any like this! These exotic examples are courtesy of Madame Knip (and a bit of publishing drama: https://s.si.edu/39xHs20 ). Find the book in @BioDivLibrary : https://s.si.edu/2Wg8STA 

Artist & ornithologist Louis Agassiz Fuertes was acclaimed for his depictions of birds. Our copy of "A natural history of the ducks" (1922) has some fascinating quackers! @BioDivLibrary link: https://s.si.edu/3dLjS4V 

More about Fuertes: https://s.si.edu/2Jxqru4  #drawabirdday

Jacob H. Sturm's "The birds of North America" (1895) packs a lot of #DrawABirdDay inspiration in each plate. Painter Theodore Jasper provided the bird portraits on which the plates were based. Find the whole book in @BioDivLibrary : https://s.si.edu/3aRIQ0Q  .

Overwhelmed by these great artistic examples? Though John Latham was the leading English ornithologist of his day, his illustrations are a bit more . . . simplistic.

Examples from "Supplement to the General synopsis of birds" in @BioDivLibrary : https://s.si.edu/3aE2CwO 

Hope you've found some inspiration for your #DrawABirdDay activities in these great illustrations from our titles in @BioDivLibrary . There are oodles more in Flickr: https://s.si.edu/2xEpJsj 

Create something for #DrawABirdDay tomorrow ? Share and tag us! We'd love to see.