Celebrating our birds through art
TL;DR:
It’s National Bird Week in Australia! From 19-25 October 2026, Australians are invited to count the birds around them using the Aussie Bird Count app.
Art can be a powerful way to explore and reflect our connections to Australian birds. I share a few of my bird paintings below to help celebrate these relationships and special kin.
I’ve enjoyed friendships with wild birds since I was a child - how about. you? What bird relationships have you experienced?
Today, where I live on the Gold Coast, I get to chat with the resident magpies and currawongs, who watch me with unflustered postures as I walk by. I get to witness the native black swans in the nearby lake go through pairing, nesting, raising their cygnets, all the while navigating a range of harms posed by local humans (fishing wire and hooks, dog mauls, loss of habitat, etc). The rainbow lorikeets screech at sunrise and sunset in impressively sized groups, bringing a festivity to their bookending on the day.
There is much to love and connect with, in local birds in Australia. This is why Birdlife Australia organises National Bird Week each year, aiming to inspire Australians to take action and get involved in bird conservation efforts. In 2026, National Bird Week runs from 19-25 October. Take part by registering, recording the birds you see and submit your findings on the Aussie Bird Count Website. Use their free resources for help.
To help celebrate our birds through art, I’m sharing a handful of my bird paintings below. I hope you enjoy them - and have fun counting your local birds!
What are we losing?
This acrylic mixed-media painting explores the predicament of endless growth in colour. It came about during proposals for another quarry in Burleigh. Notice the bird is seemingly disappearing as it looks out onto a quarry.
Amidst recent protests about the quarry, I heard leaders say this is ‘the right project, the wrong place’. Whether established here or elsewhere, the quarry would serve our society's hunger for new materials to ‘manage growth’. In this way, the proposed quarry represents the urgent need for our society to break away from over-consumption and the destruction of all that water sustains.
State Government denied the proposal moving forward, a win for the community who fought strongly against it to protect the habitat in the area.
High Flyers
Wherever I live, I love to watch and listen to the local birds. I built this large scale painting up slowly over many layers, until these birds gently took shape, eventually showing me their story.
Soaring above with their own unique perspective, they see things we do not. They show strength in their vulnerability and clarity. This painting’s colours provide a soft sense of airy space, while vibrant blues reflect the birds’ character and spirit.
One Black Swan
I regularly enjoy seeing the native black swans gliding across local lakes or waddling on nearby grassland on the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, after public maintenance removed lakeside reeds, these swans faced additional threats like off-leash dog mauls, fishing hooks and lines, and people stealing their eggs.
This painting is my homage to these elegant, wild swans. We need to do more to live in right relationship with the swans - and when we do, it is a joy! The colours I worked with here reflect that relational joy and my concern for their wellbeing.
For Our Sins
When I lived in California, my joy and love for our resident hummingbird inspired this piece. There has been many wildfires and when I began painting her, I was overcome with fear of what another climate-change induced fire season might mean for her and our animal kin - and humanity. Where would the animals go, if their territory is destroyed and air spoiled by choking wildfire smoke?
The flames rising in this painting echo my fear of and anger with humanity’s reckless sacrificing of our animal kin. These birds calm and inspire me.
Despite their tiny size, their tiny beaks, their body’s rapid use of energy - they are beautifully alive, embracing all they can do.
You Gave Me The World
This painting was inspired by the little birds that lived, played and sang in my small courtyard in California. I enjoyed watching the birds sit on the fence watching me, so in this painting I created a whole new world for them to enjoy. Instead of the units/houses and concrete squeezed closely together, the bird in my painted world get to admire a fantastical sky from which the sun’s brilliance lights all that regards it.
In giving these birds a new world, I realise how they have already given me the world, right here where I am.
Ibis
The more muted version of this colour palette suited my portrayal of the elegant ibis, which is not a brightly coloured bird - but it is bright in character! Confident of its place in the world, the Ibis is happy to stand amongst any surroundings it chooses, with a nonchalant eye on those watching. I admire the grace of the ibis as it lifts into flight and soars.
Are you taking part in National Bird week? Do you love bird art?
Please comment below to share!
🔁 Please remember to share with folx you know who might also enjoy this.
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