The winning bid was placed by London-based art dealer Michael Tollemache, who outbid three others during the auction.
Birds of America was first published as a series of sections between 1827 and 1838.
Only 119 copies were published of which fewer than a dozen are in private hands.
Each of the printed book were colored by hand, and it was an extremely laborious process.
Audubon employed a rather shocking technique to produce the book.
He hunted the birds down and shot them before propping them up on wires to paint.
Each drawing would take about 60 hours to complete.
