Todd McGrain’s “Lost Bird Project” is a six-foot-tall bronze sculpture commemorating five extinct bird species. McGrain, an associate professor of art at Cornell University got the idea for the Lost Bird Project after reading stories about extinct birds, and felt a need to tell their stories. He chose the Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Heath Hen, Great Auk, and Labrador Duck as his subjects.
McGrain worked five years studying stuffed specimens, written descriptions, and artwork and sculpting the artwork. The castings are the largest that McGrain has made, with each bird weighing between 400 to 700 pounds. The exhibit includes paintings of each species along with its story of extinction. One set of the bronze birds will be a traveling exhibit. Others will be placed as memorials in places where each species was last seen—from Iceland to Italy, and Ohio to New York.
Learn more about the Lost Bird Project and its artistic tribute to the Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Heath Hen, Great Auk, and Labrador Duck in the video below.
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February 5, 2010
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