Jonathan Elphick tells the remarkable story of the development of bird art through the centuries. The book features early, skilfully executed but often fanciful images of birds, scientific illustrations produced during the ages of exploration, and modern approaches capturing the essence of these freest of all creatures. This reduced size edition is chunky yet portable, and retains the lavish finish of the original gift book. The outstanding selection of images from the unrivalled collection at the Natural History Museum includes exquisitely crafted works from some of the most famous bird artists ever published including Audubon, Lear, MacGillivray and Gould.

Jonathan Elphick is a wildlife writer, editor, consultant, lecturer and broadcaster, specialising in ornithology. During a career spanning almost 40 years, he has written many books including The World of Birds, the bestseller Birdsong (2012) and the award-winning Birdwatcher’s Handbook (2001). He was researcher for Birds & People (2013), the largest survey of cultural attitudes to birds worldwide, and spent five years as researcher on the acclaimed bestseller Birds Britannica (2005).