Birds Of Brooklyn - Blog Posts

Finally put up a Birds of Brooklyn poster for myself. You can see it here with a childhood bat I reshaped and painted some fun patterns on. There is 1 MORE LEFT! of the original run of posters if you're interested in getting yourself one.

Dear Everyone, 

They exist! At long last, the Birds of Brooklyn (Common) posters are designed, laid out, printed, delivered, and available for purchase! I only have 5 left of the first run of 22! You can nab one here in my sweet shop! Thanks to everyone who followed along during the long process of making some great, happy Brooklyn birds! For those who are new, this is a 16"x20" poster featuring commonly found birds in Brooklyn NY (based on Prospect Park's Audobon guide and my own birdogling). You can read up about the cast of birds in my previous posts.

Really happy with the results. Now, the question is, who wants the Uncommon Birds of Brooklyn poster to be made?

Thanks, Austin

Bird 12: Red-winged Blackbird

An east coast staple, always mistook these at first glance for the much more elusive Oriole in my homestate of Maryland. Cornell Ornithology via Wikipedia claims this may be "the most abundant and most well studied bird in North America." Go figure. 

Bird 11: Yellow-rumped Warbler

This is a fun bird that you see pretty often. The "yellow-rumped warbler" category is often used to generally classify a group of four different warbler varieties, if you needed to know that. This is one of the cute ones. I have the Birds of Brooklyn poster nearly all laid out with type and everything. Should be rolling it out real soon. 

Bird 10: American Robin

Boy you guys, I'm coming down the final stretch with the Birds Of Brooklyn poster. This cute, colorful robin is the latest addition and I'm real glad he's on it. Keep posted about the poster.

Bird 9: Canada Goose

I am making a concerted effort fo finish up the Birds of Brooklyn poster by the end of next week. It will have 15 of the most commonly seen birds around Brooklyn, mostly my home-base Prospect Park. This one here is the venerable Canada Goose. I've always been into these birds as we had dozens that would summer in the pasture next to our house. 

Birds of Brooklyn Update

Still at work on the poster of the common birds of Brooklyn. This is where we stand at the moment. The plan is to do 15 birds for this poster, and 15 more for the rare birds version. This frequency rating is based on the Prospect Park Audubon’s statistics and my own wandering through my home park. Very excited to get this one wrapped up and printed!

Bird 8: American Crow

Many birds very common to New York fall into the recognized nuisance category. These birds, like the pigeon, the sparrow and the gull, are at times nearly invisible to the average person. Many of us only notice these common birds when they are actively in our way or bothering us in some way. Studying and drawing these birds in great detail has given me a greater respect for them - probably the feeling I had when I was younger and didn’t have any bird-stories yet; about how this one did this yucky thing, or wouldn’t move because it’s superdumb. They really are pretty incredible, even the American Crow, the dogged black sheep of the bird world. This marks the half way point for the Common Birds of Brooklyn poster. Phew, more to come.

Bird 7: Laughing Gull

Another bird in the love it or hate it category, the Laughing Gull. The sea gull many of us think of is the Herring Gull, but they aren’t as attractive and don’t outnumber the Laughing Gull by very much here in Brooklyn. I see these guys all the time at Prospect Park. When I ride down to Coney Island and Brighton Beach, these gulls rule the school. I like them when they leave my junk alone. They strike me as crows that have retired - changed clothes to suit their beachier environment.

Bird 6: Northern Cardinal

Hello everyone, hope you had a great holiday weekend and that it was lazy and full of fine foods. Back on the birdwagon here. Today is a female Northern Cardinal, one of the prettiest northeast birds in my opinion. Haven’t shown much of a wing view yet, so here you go! The set is going well, many many birds still to go until I can even think about layout for the poster. Gonna pick up the pace a bit.

Bird 5: Blue Jay

A very pretty, pretty mean bird: the Blue Jay. These things would always scare away the smaller birds on the feeder at my childhood home. In the city, they’re a bit more humble with nastier competition.

Bird 4: House Sparrow

The ultra-common, often ratty, occasionally cute House Sparrow. These guys are all over the states, and Brooklyn is no exception. Commonly found fighting pigeons for bread.

Bird 3: Double-crested Cormorant

Chugging along on birds. Here is a bit of beak detail for the big water bird. I’ve made all these birds pretty happy looking - this guy wins for that so far.

Bird One: Bufflehead

Kicked off the new bird-poster project in earnest today. I’ve a duck to show for it. Messing around with a few art styles and so far this is the one that is sticking. Not something I’ve really done before but I’m liking the direction. I especially like the slight caricature look of this guy while retaining that aviary nobility… Much more to come. This is 1/30 (I think).

Bird 2: Rock Pigeon

The indefatigable Rock Dove a.k.a Rock Pigeon a.k.a “Pigeon” a.k.a a lot of awful names. The quintessential New York City bird is up for today’s small part of the large Birds Of Brooklyn poster set I’m working on. I hope you’ll keep tagging along as I uncover more of the avian element of where I and so many nature lovers call home (even though we should be living somewhere a lot more natural if we’re honest with ourselves). Thank goodness for Prospect Park.