An avid bird watcher and local artist is taking her love of feathered friends to new heights in Columbus County. Bess Taylor has made it her goal to paint the 224 species of birds that live in or pass through our area. Her purpose is to teach nature education through her art.
Taylor started painting birds in 2022 with the hope of capturing the essence of 40 winged creatures by her 40th birthday. At the time, she didn’t realize what an undertaking that would be.
“I didn’t realize how many of them actually live around here. As my awareness of our birds grew, it became too hard to choose between them all,” she said.
The data of the species she paints comes from the website www.ebird.org. People record the avifauna they see and hear by country, state, and county. Taylor kept raising the goal to include more until she realized she was just going to have to paint them all, regardless of how long it took.
“I’ve painted 115 species. I have 109 to go,” expressed Taylor.
Along her journey, she realized how important it was for her to go birding herself to observe the feathered animals in their natural habitat. One field trip led her to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh in 2022 where she measured bird mounts for models so her wooden creations would be actual size.
The process involves her first sketching the images on scrap wood and then cutting them out with a scroll or jig saw depending on the size of the species she’s working on. She mounts them on their bases vertically to display them.
She plans to keep the collection together with a future goal in mind to present it as a rented exhibit to educate the public about the birds who fly in the skies in Columbus County.
Taylor has learned so much about each one and she wants the project to show the diversity of the local bird population.
“At the start of this journey, I didn’t know much about birds, and I’ve learned so much along the way,” explained the artist. “As I learned more about them, I realized that there’s more of the story than just their numbers.”
She said there are so many variables like how females look different than males, what babies and juveniles look like, and how some birds used to live in the area, but no longer do. She added the details to her collection for their stories to be told. She also plans to use the bird art to make prints and affordable education materials.
“Seeing the birds arranged not only by families, but by colors, habitats, and what time of the year they visit our area makes it easier to learn about them,” said Taylor. “I want to highlight the bigger picture of nature-that birds, native plants, and native insects are all part of a bigger picture-linked together and how they are all vital to our ecosystem.”
She hopes that through her project, she will make learning about her feathered friends more accessible to everyone and to open the wonders of birding to others, regardless of the current knowledge, age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
To find out more about Bess Taylor’s bird project, you can listen to her podcast with the Columbus Connection on Spotify via the link https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MDaeGGRmQ0GXqoR3CDyzW. If you would like to contact her directly, send an email to besstaylor@gmail.com.
