This is Bird Note.

Isaiah Scott was in middle school when his family took him to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

He remembers being blown away by a painting called The Wall of Birds.

It's this beautiful, huge mural with like the map of the world, but it had these colorful birds. It's this beautiful, huge mural with like the map of the world, but it had these

colorful birds. And I was like, wow, I didn't know there was this many birds with different

colors and different sizes and build morphologies. And it just made me recognize the beautiful

diversity of birds all around the world.

He marveled at the blue-footed booby in the Galapagos Islands,

the Osprey diving above the Florida Peninsula,

and hundreds more life-sized birds painted by artist Jane Kim.

From that point, I was like, I want to know more about birds.

Like, I want to go out and see what birds that I find and how many of these birds on this wall that I could potentially see one day.

Isaiah bought his first pair of binoculars from the gift shop and started birding.

Years later, he returned to Cornell to study ornithology and science communication as an undergrad.

And now, Isaiah shares his love of birds on social media, guided hikes, and through his own artwork.

Thanks to that first spark.

Ever since then, I just pinpoint my eyes towards the skies and my binoculars.

You can learn more about Isaiah Scott and the Wall of Birds when you visit our website, birdnote.org.

I'm Joni's Franklin.