Alexander Wilson Woodpecker Analysis

Alexander Wilson was a compassionate man who emigrated from Scotland as an adult coming to live in Pennsylvania. This is where he discovered his passion for birds by studying them and painting them. He published a seven volume American Ornithology from 1808 to 1814. Wilson’s passion for birds all started when every morning he would watch a cardinal out side his window sing for him everyday. One day this ended, the cardinal was shot and this man was pretty upset about it. Alexander Wilson wrote about many birds but the one I was able to read about in this passage was the ivory billed woodpecker. I believe he chose this bird out of all of the wood peckers because of its looks and strength, in Wilson eyes “He may be called the king or chief of

These trees are seen with the bark removed and faded white from the sun. When this wood pecker was hurt Wilson compared it to a violet crying child. It surprised me that this woodpecker was taken in by Wilson and put in his house. He said it made holes to try to escape the size of a human hand going through the wall. Then took the bird and tied his foot with string to a table keep him from roaming the house. I was shocked that Wilson did not think he would try to destroy his mahogany table causing a ruckus. The bird lived with him for three short days and Wilson was tempted to restore him to his natural habitat but eventually the bird had died. I learned from Wilson these birds are twenty inches long with black feathers appearing green in the sun light with eyes a vivid yellow nostrils covered in white, their is much more detail to this wood pecker that Wilson describes so well in his writing. The ivory billed woodpeckers do not migrate and they also lay their eggs in the hollow trees the trees that are always very large, they eat insects and