Basil Ede (12 February 1931—29 September 2016) was an English wildlife artist specialising in avian portraiture, noted for the ornithological precision of his paintings.

[2] On leaving the army at the end of 1951, Ede joined the Merchant Navy, and he set sail on his maiden voyage as a purser on board Orient Line's Empire Orwell in early 1952.

[7] The publication features a foreword written by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and text by ornithologist W. D. Campbell, republished by Chartwell Books in 2004.

[9] In 1971 Ede was commissioned by Walter Annenberg, then serving as United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James, to paint a series of eastern Pennsylvanian birds for his private collection.

[13] Robert McCracken Peck, in his essay "Four Centuries of Avian Portraiture", says that the project "...has been compared in scope to John James Audubon's twenty eight year effort to document and celebrate the birds of North America", but adds, "so limited a comparison fails to put into proper perspective the much larger tradition of bird painting in America with which both Audubon and Ede are intimately interlinked.

[15] In his foreword, Prince Philip, himself a collector of Ede's work, ranked the English painter among the world's great wildlife artists.

[18] In May 1992, some of Ede's new works in oils were exhibited at the Tryon and Morland Gallery in London as part of their "Twenty years in Cork Street" show.

[20] In July 1993, the Wimborne Arts Festival (Dorset, UK) chose to honour Ede with a one-man exhibition of his work in oils.