Plate 49. Blue-green Warbler 

This is John James Audubon's "Blue-green Warbler," a delicate watercolor of a small bird perched amidst branches laden with berries. Audubon, in his pursuit of representing nature, unknowingly taps into ancient symbolic languages. The bird, often a symbol of the soul or spiritual messenger, is here juxtaposed with berries, which carry their own weight of meaning. Berries can represent nourishment, abundance, or, depending on their type, temptation and danger. Think of Eve and the forbidden fruit. This contrast is particularly striking when we consider similar pairings across cultures: a bird offering a branch to a deity, or a soul depicted as a bird. Here the Blue-green Warbler is not offering, it is consuming. This subtle shift can be seen as an evolution in symbolic representation, an adaptation to the modern eye, engaging with subconscious associations of nature, sustenance, and the delicate balance of life. The motif of birds and berries persists. The cycle continues.