As we sit in silence, our own breath and beating hearts are indistinguishable from the living, breathing landscape that pulses with sensations, memories, and the very real awareness that what happens to these birds happens to us.

-Terry Tempest Williams

In the original book by John James Audubon, The Birds of America, he sought to capture, catalog, and illustrate birds, many for the first time. The Disappearing Birds of North America: 389 Birds on the Verge of Extinction takes inspiration from the original book but this iteration is not about ownership or staking a claim, it is about protection, preservation, and communicating an urgent message of conservation through creating a collective illustrated archive that documents the 389 birds in North America in danger of extinction.

Using the National Audubon Society’s groundbreaking climate report, Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink, 389 contemporary artists and designers will be invited to contribute a rendering of one of the birds in the report. Each contribution will be supplemented with information on the bird, habitat/regions, migration pattern, climate, and why/how it is currently at risk.

The donated works serve as an archive of contemporary images organizations dedicated to conservation and ornithology can use for exhibitions, fundraising, and awareness campaigns. The final archive of contributions will take the form of a book with all proceeds going to conservancy work. To bring additional awareness to the crisis five-minute radio segments will be created to highlight each bird.