John James Audubon joined a hunting party to explore the Lower Ohio River and the Upper Mississippi River in February of 1814. Despite the ice, wind, and frigid temperatures, the rivers and riversides were teeming with bird life. Among them was the “Great Eagle!” Audubon remarked, “never shall I forget the delight which it gave me.” Audubon renamed the bird for Birds of America the Bird of Washington (Haliaetus washingtoni). Audubon believed that naming the bird after the first president of the United States was “preposterous and unfit; but as it is indisputable the noblest bird of its genus that has yet been discovered in the United States, I trust I shall be allowed to honour it with the name of one yet nobler, who was the saviour [sic] of this country, and whose name will ever be dear to it.”
The Bird of Washington no longer appears along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Most experts contend that the Bird of Washington never occurred along the rivers or anywhere else and was a bird that Audubon fabricated. The bird could be taken for an immature Bald eagle, which Audubon also drew for the first edition of Birds of America (Plate 126). Although, Audubon maintained that the Bird of Washington was unique and even wrote about another occasion finding the bird nesting near the mouth of the Green River in Kentucky. Once Audubon and his fellow hunters were detected, the parents flew off. No shots were taken to bring down the birds with the expectation that they would not stay long away from their nesting site. Audubon returned three days later, only to discover “the sagacious birds, no doubt having anticipated an invasion, and removed their young to new quarters.”
It was not until walking down a backroad near Henderson, Kentucky, that Audubon was able to spot and bring down a Bird of Washington and use the specimen for his drawing in Birds of America. The measurements of the bird were “Length 3 feet 7 inches; extent of wings 10 feet 2 inches; bill 3 1/4 inches along the back; along the gap, which commences directly under the eye, to the tip of the lower mandible 3 1/3, and 1 3/4 deep. Length of wing when folded 32 inches; length of tail 15 inches; tarsus 4 1/2, middle 4 3/4, hind claw 2 1/2.” If a bird of such proportions were reported today, while it may or may not be identified as a Bird of Washington, it would be too large in every way to qualify as a Bald eagle.