Climate Change Bird Mosaic
Birds can't fight climate change. We can.
Mosaic illustration for the “Climate Change” special issue of Audubon magazine.
About the cover
The mosaic was the cover of Audubon magazine's Fall 2019 climate change issue. The bird is a Great Gray Owl. Audubon's climate report found the species could lose 97% of its summer breeding range if global temperatures rise 3°C above pre-industrial levels. At 1.5°C it would still lose 59% of its summer habitat.
How it was made
The owl is built from 403 photographs of Audubon staff and volunteers, collected over five years. They show bird walks, native-plant restoration and advocacy work. It took two weeks to arrange them into one photorealistic image. The mosaic stresses community and collective action rather than data, which fits the art director's question: what are we going to do about it?
Project details
Client: Audubon magazine. Type: magazine cover and editorial illustration (2019). Subject: environment, birds, climate.
Read more: Explore our climate change cover on audubon.org.
Owl mosaic
Standout mosaic details worth a closer look:
