This is Bird Note.

David Sibley's paintings connect millions of people with the lives of birds.

His delight and skill in observing and portraying birds culminated in the Sibley guide to birds.

I spent years in the field just traveling and birding and doing pencil sketches and getting to know the birds,

learning the shapes and the postures and the general patterns.

Woo! learning the shapes and the postures and the general patterns.

The drawing was so important to me that there was never any question in my mind of continuing on to paint the birds.

It's how I study the birds.

And then when I go into the studio to paint, I have my sketches. I gather together all the photographs I can find.

I've already visited museums and looked at specimens and taken notes on those.

But what I try to put into the painting is sort of a synthesis of all of the things that I've seen,

all the things that I've learned, it's the impression of many

experiences.

You can watch a video of David Sibley sketching a Townsend's warbler at birdnote.org.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.

Support for Bird Note is provided by Marjorie and Ed Ringness from Seattle, Washington,

and generous listeners around the world.