Plate 56 – Red Shouldered Hawk

John James Audubon is best known for the birds he draws. But without the plants and backgrounds that Audubon used, it is conceivable that neither John James Audubon nor his drawings would be known today. Birds are most typically placed among unidentified reeds and grasses. The one unidentified plant that appears in at least a number of instances and that would have likely raised curiosity is Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides). The epiphytic plant grows almost exclusively along the southeastern coast of North America where there is high humidity, maritime forests, and swamps. It is the rare Live oak (Quercus virginiana) or Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) that does not have Spanish moss draped over its branches that looks large sponges made out of thick, greenish-grey wire, or what early French settlers thought looked like the beards that grew on the faces of the Spanish conquistadors. Spanish moss is growing on a branch on which the female Red-shouldered hawk is perched in Birds of America. The Red-shouldered hawk uses Spanish moss for material to build its nest, as do many other birds. Chickadees, titmice, and many other smaller types of birds rummage through Spanish moss to find the tiny insects that the plant harbors.