[7] The plant life backgrounds of some 50 of the bird studies were painted by Audubon's assistant Joseph Mason, but he is not credited for his work in the book.

[12][10] In his bird art, he mainly forsook oil paint, the medium of serious artists of the day, in favour of watercolours and pastel crayons (and occasionally pencil, charcoal, chalk, gouache, and pen and ink).

[12] As a result, in 1826, he set sail for the United Kingdom with 250 of his original illustrations, looking for the financial support of subscribers and the technical abilities of engravers and printers.

From 1826 to 1829, he travelled around the UK and to Paris, lecturing on ornithology and frontier American life[21] in an effort to entice wealthy patrons to subscribe to the series of prints.

Subscribers included: King Charles X of France; Queen Adelaide of the United Kingdom; the 2nd Earl Spencer; and, later, the Americans Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.

[19][21] An accompanying text, issued separately, was written by Audubon and the Scottish naturalist and ornithologist William MacGillivray[23] and published in five volumes in Edinburgh between 1831 and 1839, under the title Ornithological Biography, or, An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America.

The octavo edition used the text of the Ornithological biography but increased the number of plates to 500, separating some birds which had originally appeared together.

"[31] A full 8-volume, double-elephant folio version is on public display in the Audubon Room at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The entire volume of 435 plates is also available for viewing online at the websites of the University of Michigan [32] and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

[33] Since 1992, the Louisiana State University Libraries have hosted "Audubon Day," a semi-annual public showing of all four volumes of LSU's copy of the Birds of America.

Following this, the university constructed an exhibit case on the ground floor of the school's Hillman Library to continuously display a rotating selection of plates to the public.

[10] In 2007, the university undertook a project to digitize every plate from Birds of America, as well as Audubon's Ornithological Biography, and, for the first time, presented the complete set for public viewing through one site on the internet.

[37][38] In 2004, there was an attempted heist of the Transylvania University's four double-sized folios of Birds of America by four college students, Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Eric Borsuk, and Chas Allen II.

[citation needed] The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library's Rare Book Room has a complete Birds of America, which is often on display.

All of Audubon's and Mason's known extant watercolors preparatory for Birds of America are housed at the New-York Historical Society in New York City.

[42] The Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, owns and exhibits John James Audubon's personal copy of Birds of America.

[43] The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois owns a copy that previously belonged to Audubon's friend and family doctor, Dr. Benjamin Phillips.

[45] In 2010 the North Carolina Museum of Art began a five-year exhibition of its restored four-volume set purchased for the state by Governor William Alexander Graham in 1846.

[50] The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland holds one volume which is on display in the library, together with an interactive version.

[57][58] The Birds of America is on permanent display in Trinity College, Connecticut's Watkinson Library, and was owned by the engraver, Robert Havell.

[74] On 6 December 2010, a complete copy of the first edition was sold in London at Sotheby's for £7,321,250[75][76] during the sale of Magnificent Books, Manuscripts and Drawings from the collection of the 2nd Baron Hesketh.

This copy was an early subscriber's edition which had originally belonged to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and was later bought by Joseph Verner Reed Jr.[78] Gallery of the rest of the plates.

In 1830s, immediately after the publication, several plates were used as a basis for the design of a series of roller-printed furnishing fabric, produced in Lancashire, United Kingdom.