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James Coe's cover for The Auk

Barn Owl by James Coe

American Robin juvenile by James Coe
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James Coe is best known as author and illustrator of Eastern Birds: A Guide to Field Identification of North American Species, first published by Golden Press in 1994. The Eastern Birds Golden Guide has been newly revised and updated for 2001. He has also contributed plates to numerous other field guides and to the college textbook ORNITHOLOGY. His artwork has appeared on the cover of the popular birdwatching magazine BirdWatcher's Digest and on The Auk, an ornithological journal (picture at left). Currently, Jim is working on a companion volume to his eastern bird guide. The forthcoming book, WESTERN BIRDS, will introduce birders to the common birds of North America from the Rockies west to the Pacific.

Jim's field guide plates and illustrations are painted in watercolor and gouache. For references, Jim draws from photographs, bird specimens borrowed from museum collections, and, most importantly, from nearly 30 years of birding experience. The greatest challenge of his work is to capture the unique character and personality of each bird he paints.

Whenever he can take time from his illustration work, Jim likes to get out in the field. Birding and sketching from life are essential to his work. Recently his other great passion has been "plein air" (on site) landscapes in oil. Many of these are finished works in their own right, while others may become studies for larger studio oil paintings of birds in habitat settings. Jim's paintings have been included in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson "Birds in Art" show, and in the Bennington Center for the Arts' annual "Art of the Animal Kingdom" exhibit.

Old Pine at Silver Lake

James Coe grew up in the suburbs of New York City. He studied biology at Harvard University, and received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting at the Parson's School of Design in New York City. Today Jim lives with his wife and two young children on the western rim of New York's Hudson Valley. From his studio, perched on the second story of a recent addition to their nineteenth century farmhouse, Jim can look out on woodlands, a meadow, and a small pond. He has spotted 141 species of birds on the seventeen-acre property.