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Photography

Leila Jeffreys’ Gorgeous Cockatoo Portraiture

By Leigh Patterson on

Why explore portraiture of humans when there are cockatoos to be photographed? Good question. It’s hard not to be transfixed by the Wild Cockatoos series from fine art photographer Leila Jeffreys. Born in New Guinea, she spent her adolescence in a small village in India where she was “surrounded by monkeys, mongoose, and buffaloes.” This fondness for wildlife is evident in her work: each image is titled with the bird’s name (to name a few: Matilda, Slim, Bob), and seems to aptly capture the distinct beauty of the peculiar Australian birds.

“I want to celebrate them because they are gorgeous,” Jeffreys has explained. “I photograph them in a traditional studio portraiture setting and take photos that focuses on capturing their characters, not just their beauty… The project took me two years to complete as it was hard to get access to wild cockatoos. I worked with wildlife rescue groups, wildlife parks, zoos and private breeders that are all passionate about conservation.” Take a gander at the stunning images that she was able to capture in our slideshow. … Read More

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Photography

Bizarre, Provocative Photos of Birds Caught in Nets

By Caroline Stanley on

Jonathan Franzen’s got nothing on Todd R. Forsgren. The lifelong bird-watcher and Washington, D.C.-based photographer has traveled the world over in order to shoot countless species as they’re captured in ornithologists’ mist nets in order to be examined; the resulting images of the tangled up creatures — who, it’s important note, are unharmed by the process — provoke a mixed response in the viewer. On one hand, there’s something off-putting about seeing the birds placed in such a compromising situation. On the other, you begin to notice details that you wouldn’t if Forsgren’s unsuspecting subjects were perched in their natural environment.

“I feel there is a unique mystery to the birds in this fragile and embarrassing moment, to take a creature that is the epitome of freedom and bind it,” he explained in an interview with 20×200. “In some way, the birds are still ‘unknown’ during this moment, as it is before they are taken out of the nets, measured and weighed. Gathering this information is difficult. It’s a struggle, as intimacy often is. But I wanted to take photographs about the process of getting to know a bird deeply. Initially, most people think the images are tragic if they’re not familiar with the mist-netting and bird-banding; even a bit difficult to look at. But I hope that, as they consider this moment more carefully, they’ll come to understand and appreciate the valuable information that biologists can collect using these techniques.”

Click through to check out some of our favorite photos from the series, which we spotted thanks to Fast Company, and head over to Forsgren’s website for even more beautiful bird images. … Read More

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Art

Extinct Birds Dressed In Fashions From the Year of Their Demise

By Emily Temple on

It’s always a relief when a particularly noxious (or unflattering) style of clothing goes out of style. It’s a little less pleasant when an entire species goes extinct, but that doesn’t make us appreciate these clever and irreverent drawings by Brian R. Williams, which we spotted over at i09, any less. Williams imagines extinct birds going out in style — the style of the times, that is, dressing them in fashions from the year they went extinct. We’re willing to be you’ve never seen a more striking Atitlán Grebe in your life. Click through to check out a veritable menagerie of well-dressed fowl, and if you’re still not satisfied, head here to buy a print of one (or many!) of Williams’ drawings for yourself. … Read More

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Design

Adorable Birds Made Out of LEGO

By Emily Temple on

While birdwatching — er, surfing the web — we spotted these rare and beautiful little LEGO birds assembled by “Tree Surgeon and Lego Monster” DeTomaso Pantera over at Colossal. Part of an ongoing series of LEGO recreations of birds found in Britain, we think they’re rather charming, and they certainly put our LEGO skills to shame. Pantera is also in the running to have his birds become an official LEGO product — if you like what you see and want one of your own, click here to support his cause. Click through to see a mini menagerie of British birdies, guaranteed not to fly away on you, and then head here to check out more of Pantera’s work. … Read More

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Design

Beautiful Cartographic Birds by Claire Brewster

By Emily Temple on

London-based paper artist Claire Brewster, whose work we first spotted over at Colossal, creates beautiful, intricate cut-out birds and plants from old maps. We love how the play of the shadow behind the paper figures seems to give them a sense of movement, and we’re fascinated by the concept of birds painstakingly built from the colorful patterns of what used to be a complete birds-eye-view. Somehow, they make us want to stay in and re-decorate our apartments and also go on a round-the-world trip all at once, which is quite a lot of emotion for some cut-up bits of paper. Click through to see some of our favorites of Brewster’s work, and then be sure to head over to her blog for even more. … Read More

Pop Culture

Happy Thanksgiving: 40 Culturally Relevant Birds

By Romy Oltuski on

Thursday’s meal may not be a crowning moment for the avian kind, but birds have done well making a name for themselves in pop culture. From the lovable Woodstock to Harper Lee’s lessons in morality, the trendy act of microblogging to birds that actually microblog, they have left their tiny tracks all over our consciousness. With anthropomorphic birds (see Big Bird), humans channeling birds (see Björk), and even birds killing humans (see Bird Flu), it seems that the two species have never been more closely linked. Below the jump, we’ve rounded up 40 cultural it birds who did better for themselves than the one on your Thanksgiving table. … Read More

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Film

Video of the Day: A Stunning Murmuration of Starlings

By Alison Nastasi on

A flock of starlings is what’s known as a murmuration — one of the most beautiful words we’ve ever heard and a breathtaking phenomenon that finds thousands of the small birds forming swirling clouds that swoop across the sky. Sophie Windsor Clive and her traveling companions were canoeing across the River Shannon in Ireland when they floated right into a dense murmuration. Luckily their chance encounter was captured on video. Apparently the birds can reach up to 20 MPH in flight, and the murmuration builds in size over the course of the day as the starlings look for a place to congregate at night. Click past the break to marvel at this natural wonder. … Read More

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Pop Culture

The Flavorpill 2011 Pop Culture Terror Alert Scale

By Christine Jordan on

It’s the end of an era: the Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday that it would stop relying upon its color-coded terrorism alert scale, which means that no longer will the nightly news give us an inexplicable craving for Life Savers. We here at Flavorwire thought the government really had something with their Rainbow Brite approach to the truly terrifying, though, and decided to re-purpose their spectrum of scary things for the new year.

After the jump, take a peek at Flavorpill’s very own Pop Culture Advisory System and the celebrities, shows, and films that have terrorized 2011 so far and are on our cultural disaster watch list from here on out. … Read More

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Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Chris Jordan

By Kelsey Keith on

Artist and photographer Chris Jordan examines the bad habits of human consumption with work that depicts trash in all its incarnations.

From a distance, his collections of bottle caps, bullets, or Barbie parts are pleasantly abstract, though carefully orchestrated in their large-scale, long-zoom formats. As a body of work, Jordan’s photographs and multimedia pieces — combining documentary with staged production — reveal stunning data about the accumulation of stuff, wrapping social commentary in an attractive packaging. … Read More

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Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Walton Ford

By Shana Nys Dambrot on

Walton Ford’s paintings of wild animals combine the austere mastery of New England-style naturalism with a dark sexuality and satirical humor.

Ford’s latest project is Pancha Tantra, a signed and numbered edition from Taschen; its title is a reference to the Sanskrit tradition of animal fables as sociopolitical commentary. The artist’s exotic birds of prey, equine species, and their surreal orgies, tea parties, and surroundings act as metaphorical indictments of the insatiability and violence of his own species’ appetites.… Read More

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