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“ John James Audubon (Jean-Jacques Audubon) (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species and a number of new sub-species.

Early life
Jean-Jacques Audubon was born in Les Cayes in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) on his father's sugar plantation. He was the illegitimate (or natural) son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer (and privateer) from the south of Britanny, and his mistress Jeanne Rabine , a 27-year-old creole chambermaid from Les Touches in the same Province of Britanny (now in the modern région Pays de la Loire). They named the boy Jean Rabin. His mother died when the boy was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. His father already had two mixed-race children by his mulatto housekeeper, Sanitte (described as a quadroon, meaning [......] ”

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