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The Wall of Birds: One Planet, 243 Families, 375 Million Years – The Essential Illustrated Guide to Avian Evolution and Diversity by Jane Kim for Naturalists and Art Lovers
A celebration of the diversity and evolution of birds, as depicted in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's magnificent 2,500-square-foot Wall of Birds mural by artist Jane Kim. Part homage, part artistic and sociological journey, The Wall of Birds tells the story of birds' remarkable 375-million-year evolution. With a foreword by John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and full of lush photographs of gorgeous life-size birds painted in exacting detail, The Wall of Birds lets readers explore these amazing creatures family by family and continent by continent. Throughout, beautifully crafted narratives and intimate artistic reflections tell of the evolutionary forces that created birds' dazzling variety of forms and colors, and reveal powerful lessons about birds that are surprisingly relevant to contemporary human challenges. From the tiny five-inch Marvelous Spatuletail hummingbird to the monstrous thirty-foot Yutyrannus, The Wall of Birds is a visual feast, essential for bird enthusiasts, naturalists, and art lovers alike.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 23, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 26, 2019
I checked this book out at the library but I would love, love, love to own a copy! Stunning! 😍😍😍😍😍
November 24, 2018
A wonderful book, not just for the superb artwork but also because it is beautifully written as well. A fantastic account of a magnificent achievement.
November 1, 2020
Absolutely gorgeous.
March 21, 2026
Simply marvelous!! ❤️
January 31, 2022
The Wall of Birds is a fantastic, beautiful book. The author, Jane Kim, is an artist who was hired by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to paint a mural on a giant wall. Apparently, the task consumed 29 months of her time, including research and preliminary compositions. The research and details depicted of the birds is meticulous. At one point, Kim writes that an observer of her owl painting noted that the way she showed the tail feathers was not correct - the tail feathers overlap in a different pattern. So she had to go back and repaint the tail feathers correctly! I guess this is one of the joys - or perils - of painting a bird mural on a wall in an Ornithology Lab.
The backdrop of the mural is a map of all the continents. The birds are painted on top of their home continent (there a few sea birds, like the albatross, that are painted out over the ocean). All of the birds are painted life size, so the mural must really be impressive. In addition to all the birds, there is a "staircase of evolution" which shows the predecessors to the modern birds. These extinct creatures were painted in grey scale, but also life size, including the 30' tall Yutyrabbys huali, which lived in the early Cretaceous period and is currently the largest feathered animal discovered so far. The latest scientific thinking is that feathers were initially a method for the proto-birds to regulate their temperature; feathers were used for insulation before they were used for flight.
In addition to the beautiful artwork, Kim's book also contains some interesting bird facts.
The spotted kiwi, in fact, is not actually spotted.
The kick from an ostrich is powerful enough to crush the skull of a lion.
The Southern Cassowary, a resident of Australia, is quite dangerous - it stands five feet tall, can weigh up to 100 pounds, run thirty miles per hour, and it sports 5 inch claws on its powerful legs that can disembowel any human rash enough to provoke it. ( Cassowary's eat a frugivorous diet - which was a new word to me. I had to look it up and learn that frugivorous means it eats fruit.)
Australia was also home of the now extinct Dromornis stirtoni, which stood ten feet tall and weighed an incredible 1300 lbs. It is thought to have died out 30,000 years ago (about the time humans arrived on the Australian continent) and was the largest bird that ever existed.
In Mozambique, a Red Faced Mousebird sits in trees to expose its belly to the warm sun. The sun's warmth aids the bacteria in its stomach to digest the leaves it eats.
The secretary bird strides across Africa on long crane-like legs until it spots prey (secretary birds are famous for killing cobras). It then pounces on its target, delivering punishing fast blows with its clawed feet - striking up to six times per second!
In addition to adding color, melanin in wings gives strength to feathers, which is why white birds like an albatross have black feathers on their heads and wingtips - the places where wind places the most stress on their feathers.
On page 96, Kim shows the underpainting of the Imperial Cormorant. The next photo shows her painting feather detail over the under color. What is interesting is that Kim is painting with what looks like markers. Is there such a thing as a brush/pen? On page 97 is a picture of the finished Cormorant, an excellent piece of art.
The last page of the book is a three page foldout showing the entire wall with finished mural. It would be nice to see that in person some day. This is an impressive book!
I got The Wall of Birds One Planet | 243 Families | 375 million years out of the library because it I wanted to look at the wonderful artwork;, and I am so impressed that now I think I shall of purchase a copy for myself. I went to Jane Kim's website, inkdwell.com to see if she had other books available, but Wall of Birds is currently her only published book. There is an interesting project concerning migrating monarch butterflies shown on the site.
The backdrop of the mural is a map of all the continents. The birds are painted on top of their home continent (there a few sea birds, like the albatross, that are painted out over the ocean). All of the birds are painted life size, so the mural must really be impressive. In addition to all the birds, there is a "staircase of evolution" which shows the predecessors to the modern birds. These extinct creatures were painted in grey scale, but also life size, including the 30' tall Yutyrabbys huali, which lived in the early Cretaceous period and is currently the largest feathered animal discovered so far. The latest scientific thinking is that feathers were initially a method for the proto-birds to regulate their temperature; feathers were used for insulation before they were used for flight.
In addition to the beautiful artwork, Kim's book also contains some interesting bird facts.
The spotted kiwi, in fact, is not actually spotted.
The kick from an ostrich is powerful enough to crush the skull of a lion.
The Southern Cassowary, a resident of Australia, is quite dangerous - it stands five feet tall, can weigh up to 100 pounds, run thirty miles per hour, and it sports 5 inch claws on its powerful legs that can disembowel any human rash enough to provoke it. ( Cassowary's eat a frugivorous diet - which was a new word to me. I had to look it up and learn that frugivorous means it eats fruit.)
Australia was also home of the now extinct Dromornis stirtoni, which stood ten feet tall and weighed an incredible 1300 lbs. It is thought to have died out 30,000 years ago (about the time humans arrived on the Australian continent) and was the largest bird that ever existed.
In Mozambique, a Red Faced Mousebird sits in trees to expose its belly to the warm sun. The sun's warmth aids the bacteria in its stomach to digest the leaves it eats.
The secretary bird strides across Africa on long crane-like legs until it spots prey (secretary birds are famous for killing cobras). It then pounces on its target, delivering punishing fast blows with its clawed feet - striking up to six times per second!
In addition to adding color, melanin in wings gives strength to feathers, which is why white birds like an albatross have black feathers on their heads and wingtips - the places where wind places the most stress on their feathers.
On page 96, Kim shows the underpainting of the Imperial Cormorant. The next photo shows her painting feather detail over the under color. What is interesting is that Kim is painting with what looks like markers. Is there such a thing as a brush/pen? On page 97 is a picture of the finished Cormorant, an excellent piece of art.
The last page of the book is a three page foldout showing the entire wall with finished mural. It would be nice to see that in person some day. This is an impressive book!
I got The Wall of Birds One Planet | 243 Families | 375 million years out of the library because it I wanted to look at the wonderful artwork;, and I am so impressed that now I think I shall of purchase a copy for myself. I went to Jane Kim's website, inkdwell.com to see if she had other books available, but Wall of Birds is currently her only published book. There is an interesting project concerning migrating monarch butterflies shown on the site.
December 9, 2019
The graphics were gorgeous, though I would have preferred a little more detail on each bird. (The little tidbits on the birds lives and reasons why they were chosen were lovely, but not all the birds were featured).
I loved the insights on the making of the making of the mural, and it definitely inspired me to follow up on learning more about some of the birds I found particularly compelling.
Main complaint: I wish they had used a numbering system to match bird pictures to names. On page 196-197, for example, I had to use Google to figure out which bird name went to which picture, because it wasn't clear what order was meant by 'clockwise from top left'. Most places were fairly straightforward, but there were at least 3-4 places in the books where I was puzzling out the order intended, so I wish they'd made a different editorial choice.
I loved the insights on the making of the making of the mural, and it definitely inspired me to follow up on learning more about some of the birds I found particularly compelling.
Main complaint: I wish they had used a numbering system to match bird pictures to names. On page 196-197, for example, I had to use Google to figure out which bird name went to which picture, because it wasn't clear what order was meant by 'clockwise from top left'. Most places were fairly straightforward, but there were at least 3-4 places in the books where I was puzzling out the order intended, so I wish they'd made a different editorial choice.
July 30, 2019
This is a beautiful book both in its content and presentation. Jane Kim tells the story of how she completed a once in life time project of painting a wall sized mural at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. From stories of her internship days, long periods researching birds chosen for the project, and all nighters painting, I came away with a new appreciation for our avian friends and those who seek to raise awareness of their beauty and fragility. As a new birder, I appreciated the facts, but the paintings kept me lingering.
August 23, 2025
Birds Through The Ages
I loved everything about this book! From the artist speaking to how the birds were placed on the map to her artistic perspective and even her color palette for each bird. The illustrations are amazing and beautiful and the process from the time she was chosen to attempt this massive homage to birds is fascinating. I found the decision to also include from the very beginning of time the incredibly ancient ancestors of the birds and the species that were driven to extinction in grayscale touching and respectful. I highly, highly recommend this book!
I loved everything about this book! From the artist speaking to how the birds were placed on the map to her artistic perspective and even her color palette for each bird. The illustrations are amazing and beautiful and the process from the time she was chosen to attempt this massive homage to birds is fascinating. I found the decision to also include from the very beginning of time the incredibly ancient ancestors of the birds and the species that were driven to extinction in grayscale touching and respectful. I highly, highly recommend this book!
July 2, 2024
We use the Cornell Lab of Ornithology app to identify backyard birds, so I gravitated to this book when it came up as a kindle deal. My Fire tablet, chosen specifically to handle illustrated kindle books, is plagued by crashes, but that isn’t the fault of the books. This one has illustrations of nearly 300 birds and extinct creatures with interesting stories about the birds themselves or the artist’s experience of painting them. A beautiful book for anyone who likes birds.
June 24, 2019
Even though I have taken a university module on avian biology, I got to learnt about various birds that I have never heard of through this lovely book. The book brings to life the birds on the mural and shares the creativity and thought process of the selected birds :) It’s indeed a wonderful and beautiful book to read!
September 8, 2018
Amazing!
January 15, 2019
Beautiful illustrations, would love to see this artwork mural in person.
September 18, 2019
I just love reading about great feats of human creativity; nothing is more inspiring. This account of a breathtaking bird mural that combines the best of art and science was well worth the time.
November 11, 2019
A book about birds. A book about nature illustrations. A book about mural painting. A book about an artist.
November 12, 2019
Beautiful. Of course. Now I want to see the wall at Cornell for real.
January 2, 2021
Incredible! What a project and an excellent book. I can’t wait to visit Ithaca and Sapsucker Woods in person some day.
April 17, 2023
Gorgeous book. Worth pouring over slowly. I wish it had more about either the birds or the techniques, but really beautiful.
April 27, 2024
Amazing book
I loved this book so much. I mostly read on Kindle and got this book on sale. I think I will eventually get a print copy just for the images.
I loved this book so much. I mostly read on Kindle and got this book on sale. I think I will eventually get a print copy just for the images.
April 1, 2021
A must have for any bird and art lover. "An Artistic Journey" is an apt subtitle, as this book is about Jane Kim's year+ long art project which covers the largest wall in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. But it was more than one person's project: other scientists and artists largely contributed, and Kim herself did extensive research on each bird. This isn't just beautiful art, it is beautiful, anatomically and geologically accurate art, detailed with amazing bird science and history.
Love the Evolution chapter the most; it's so cool that they decided to add more than just birds, but also their ancestor dinosaurs - and even back to fish - and their cousin crocodilia.
Love the Evolution chapter the most; it's so cool that they decided to add more than just birds, but also their ancestor dinosaurs - and even back to fish - and their cousin crocodilia.
July 28, 2022
Informative and inspiring
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews