<p><strong>Watergate, the New Deal, the Rough Rider Regiment, and the Declaration of Independence. All are synonymous with some of the most famous, and infamous, Presidents in U.S. history.</strong></p><p class="c1">But in addition to riding into battle or forming a new nation, these men also trekked across Africa, studied newly discovered fossils, and evaded their bodyguards to go bird-watching. (<a class="c2" href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/president/bumiller-text">Go inside the U.S. Presidency with </a><a class="c2" href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/president/bumiller-text"><em>National Geographic</em></a><a class="c2" href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/president/bumiller-text"> magazine.</a>)</p><p class="c1"><a class="c2" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/franklindroosevelt">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> was guilty of slipping away from Secret Service agents in order to watch the birds in the woods near his house at Hyde Park in New York, said Franceska Macsali-Urbin, a supervisory park ranger at&nbsp;<a class="c2" href="http://www.nps.gov/hofr/index.htm">the home of FDR</a>.</p><p class="c1">"When they would catch up to him, he'd gun the motor of his car and lose them in the woods," she said.</p><p class="c1">Roosevelt's fascination with birds stemmed from a boyhood hobby. Inspired by his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt, who was an avid birder, Franklin started a collection of each species of bird found around his home when he was 11 years old.</p><p class="c1">"In later years, [FDR] was known as one of the leading authorities on the birds of Dutchess County," said Macsali-Urbin.</p><p class="c1">Franklin Roosevelt's father allowed his son to collect no more than two of each species, a male and a female. By age 14, he had collected and identified more than 300 species.</p><p class="c1">A subset of his collection is displayed in a cabinet (pictured) at his family's home in Hyde Park.</p><p class="c1">—<em>Jane J. Lee</em></p>