Audubon was born Jean Jacques Fougere Audubon on the island of Haiti in 1785, the child of French naval officer Jean Jacques Audubon and his mistress Mademoiselle Rabin.  He later was taken to France where he was raised and legally adopted by his father’s wife.  At the age of 18, in 1803, he anglicized his name to John James Audubon and moved to the United States, where he lived at his father’s plantation in Mill Grove, Pennsylvania.

Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment; cares I knew not.  It was there that I commenced my simple and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the future as if the world had been made for me.

                                  John James Audubon