author
Florence Merriam Bailey
1863–1948
A pioneering bird lover helped change how Americans looked at birds: not as fashion ornaments or museum specimens, but as living creatures to watch and protect. Her lively books and field guides opened the door for generations of birdwatchers.
1 Audiobook
A-Birding on a Bronco
by Florence Merriam Bailey
About the author
Born in New York in 1863, Florence Merriam Bailey became one of the best-known American ornithologists and nature writers of her time. She studied at Smith College, where she began speaking out against the use of bird feathers in fashion, and she went on to write popular books that encouraged people to identify birds in the field rather than collect them.
Her 1889 book Birds Through an Opera-Glass is often remembered as an early classic of birdwatching, written for ordinary readers as much as for specialists. Over the following decades she published a number of important guides to North American birds, and her work helped make bird study more accessible, especially for beginners.
Bailey also played an active role in early bird-protection efforts, including work connected to Audubon organizations. She died in Washington, D.C., in 1948, but her influence lives on in modern birding, field-guide writing, and conservation.