Birds of a Feather: Our Favourite Avian Art

From the delicate balance of a kingfisher on a lotus stem to the sculptural poise of a blue heron mid-stride, birds have long offered artists a perfect blend of elegance and symbolism. Across centuries and continents, they’ve been depicted not only for their beauty, but for the metaphors they carry — grace, freedom, ephemerality, and flight.

This curated collection celebrates ten exceptional bird prints that span naturalist precision, poetic simplicity, and vivid design. Featuring masters like Ohara Koson, John James Audubon, and Ito Jakuchu, the works take us from misty Japanese gardens to sun-soaked American wetlands — each image offering its own mood, its own rhythm of wing and feather.

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Majestic Icons: Birds of Grandeur and Elegance 

John James Audubon’s Great Blue Heron (below) is nothing short of monumental. Originally published in his seminal Birds of America (1827–1838), this depiction blends meticulous scientific observation with compositional drama. The heron, poised mid-hunt, is rendered in intricate detail — from its slate-blue feathers to its steely eye. Audubon’s naturalist intent was always to depict birds “as they live,” and this scene does just that, capturing a moment of tense, balletic grace in the marshy wilds of America’s southern wetlands.

Great Blue Heron, by John James Audubon

Equally commanding is Audubon’s American Flamingo (below), one of the most celebrated images from the Birds of America series. Vivid pinks and reds stretch across the bird’s curved frame as it stoops to feed, with a sinuous elegance that made the print a favourite among both scientists and stylists. Though based on empirical study, the work hums with personality. It’s a portrait of flamboyance and precision — a natural marvel illustrated with theatrical flair.

American Flamingo, by John James Audubon

From America to Japan, Ohara Koson’s Cranes (below) offers a more stylised take on avian majesty. Of course, the two worlds and traditions did meet, which you can read about in our dedicated article on Koson and his Western influences. That said, here, the pair of birds is silhouetted in flight against a silvered moon or pale sky, their forms streamlined into near-abstraction. Koson’s work is rooted in the shin-hanga movement, where Western realism met traditional ukiyo-e aesthetics. The result is poetic but never sentimental: these cranes feel timeless, symbolic, and quietly powerful — icons of endurance, grace, and the seasonal rhythms of Japanese art.

Cranes, by Ohara Koson

Feathered in Ink: Japanese Craft and Composition

Bird and Persimmon, by Ohara Koson

To stick with Ohara Koson for a few minutes, there was a real sophistication in the way in which he rendered birds. Working in the late Meiji to early Showa periods, Koson revitalised the kacho-ga tradition — woodblock prints of birds and flowers — with a naturalist’s eye and an artisan’s grace. In Bird and Persimmon (above), a lone bird perches on a fragile branch, its delicate posture mirrored by the soft curve of ripening fruit. There’s an understated lyricism in the way Koson treats empty space here — the composition breathes, as if caught in a moment of stillness.

Birds in Rain, by Ohara Koson

Contrast this with Birds in Rain (above), where twin birds huddle against a downpour, lines of slanting rain cutting diagonally across the frame. The image hums with restrained emotion — a small gesture of intimacy in the face of the elements. Bird (1919, below), meanwhile, feels more experimental, playing with vertical framing and abstraction. Each feather seems carved from ink, the bird’s glance sharp but self-contained. Across these prints, Koson shows his gift for restraint — capturing personality, season, and scene with minimal brushwork and maximal sensitivity.

Bird, by Ohara Koson

Drama and Design: Pattern, Colour, Rhythm 

This section brings a shift in mood — from quiet observation to visual spectacle. Ito Jakuchu’s Golden Pheasant in the Snow (below) is a riot of pattern and precision, the bird’s opulent plumage rendered in vivid colour against a blank wintry backdrop. Jakuchu, working in the Edo period, had an instinct for stylisation that borders on the surreal. His birds are real, but elevated — their elegance heightened by geometric rhythm and textural contrast. In this print, the snow is almost decorative, a stage for the pheasant’s gold and crimson to burn more brightly.

Golden Pheasant in the Snow, by Ito Jakuchu

Next up, Cranes by Ogata Korin works in a different register but share a similar energy. The composition is bold — seven starkly upright cranes walking before a bold mustard gridded background. There’s a central mystery to unravel, too. Of the seven birds, all appearing to look forwards towards some sort of destination, why does one lower its head, almost in a state of defeated dejection? If Jakuchu’s bird dazzles like a soloist, these cranes perform as an ensemble — serene, graceful, but mysterious.

Cranes, by Ogata Korin

Birds Among Blossoms

There’s a hush to these final works — not just in their subject matter, but in their entire atmosphere. Kingfisher by Flower, another of Koson's brilliant birds, is an exercise in compositional restraint and visual balance. The bird is perfectly poised, caught in a moment of stillness that amplifies the presence of everything around it — the curved petal, the water’s edge, the pale sky. There’s something deeply meditative in the spacing here, the way the forms breathe together in silence.

Kingfisher by Flower, by Ohara Koson

Ohara Koson’s Two Cranes echoes that sense of gentle stasis. These cranes are not mid-flight or mid-call; they are simply present — standing together, heads inclined as if in quiet communion. Koson’s gift was in making space feel alive, and here he allows the air between the birds to carry weight. Their fine black legs and snowy bodies are outlined with care, but never overworked. It’s a composition of grace and ease, where every element is in its right place.

Two Cranes, by Ohara Koson

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From the stately elegance of Audubon’s herons to the subtle tension of Koson’s rain-slicked rooftops, these prints form a kind of visual aviary — one that spans continents, centuries, and artistic traditions. Each image offers more than just a bird on a page; it presents a way of seeing the natural world through line, rhythm, and pause.

Birds have long served as symbols — of freedom, of the seasons, of quiet reflection and sudden movement — and across these ten artworks, we see that symbolism take flight in different ways. Whether it’s the stylised flair of Ito Jakuchu or the delicate realism of Japanese woodblock masters, these prints invite us to pause, observe, and listen. In their wings and silhouettes, in their stillness and song, we find a celebration of nature that feels both deeply intimate and endlessly expansive.