This is a quixotic effort to illustrate all the birds I’ve seen in real life.
- Life list so far: 238
- Total bird species painted so far: 55 (23%) as of March 2025
The Bird Lists
The birds are presented in “life list” order – that is, the order in which I first saw the bird – not necessarily the order in which I painted them. As you go down the list, you’ll see a mix of skill, effort, and polish levels. Some are travel sketches, some studio. Some paintings are based on specific birdwatching incidents, while others are based on reference photos. The caption gives the date of the painting and, in some cases, the location of the specific bird I was painting (not necessarily my first sighting).
I’ve divided these into subpages so each page only has to have 50 or so birds on it, not all 200+.
Birds 1-49, first seen October 2013-October 2014; 27/49 painted
Birds 50-90, first seen November 2014-end of 2019; 12/41 painted
Birds 91-141, first seen 2020-2021; 5/50 painted
Birds 142-201, first seen 2022-2023; 11/60 painted
Birds 202-236, first seen 2024: 0/34 painted
Birds 237-??, first seen 2025: 0/2 painted