Premium Services      Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) Color-printed and hand-retouched engraving with etching after Jacques Barraband From: François Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers…. Vol. 1 of 2 (Paris, 1806) NYPL, Rare Books Division, Stuart Collection

The noisy, aggressive, and colorful Blue Jay resides year-round throughout New York City, not only in parks and wild areas, but wherever there are trees and a patch of green. Its bright colors are especially welcome during wintertime.

This native American bird was included, together with birds of paradise and other flamboyantly colored species, in one of the most colorful natural history publications of the Napoleonic era. In his lavishly illustrated books, Levaillant (1753–1824) described birds from around the world, but he had no qualms about appropriating text written by others, or lying about the lands he had supposedly visited to collect specimens. Barraband (1768–1809), France’s outstanding painter of birds of this period, also illustrated Levaillant’s Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801–1805) and Histoire naturelle des promerops … (1806–1818?).