Birds in the Garden (or Vogels in de Tuin)
An Educational Poster with a Story
How to become a garden bird recruiter
My love for birds is no secret.
For the past few years, I've taken on the role of a true bird recruiter, successfully bringing various feathered friends into our garden. I lure them with yummy food like seeds, fat balls, and peanut butter, strategically placing these treats all over the garden. That’s because each bird species has its own preferences when it comes to gathering food.
The feeding table is most loved by blackbirds, thrushes, and robins, who prefer foraging on the ground. Meanwhile, our woodpecker likes to dine a bit higher up and is a big fan of the fat cylinder—I always have one hanging right in the middle of the garden. Every time the birds finish it, the black-and-white-spotted fellow nervously flits back and forth, clearly wondering where the food went. Luckily for him, I always try to replace it as soon as I notice it’s gone.
Next to the popular cylinder, I’ve got a bunch of hanging ceramic stations, plus some wooden house-shaped feeders placed around our modest 40 m² garden. Last but not least, I have a basic standing bird feeder, which the three clumsy wood pigeons love best—even though they’re almost too big to fit in.
It’s interesting to see how the smallest birds tend to be the bravest, eagerly munching away at the feeding stations near the house, while the larger ones prefer to keep their distance and try their luck further back. The sparrows, tits, and finches seem to be the most daring of the lot, while the jay and the magpie are a couple of scaredy-pants. The moment they catch even the faintest movement from me (like when I turn my head behind the window), they’re off! Even after all this time, they still haven’t gotten used to me. 😅
Our garden birds in the pictures
Whenever I see an opportunity, I try to snap a photo of our visitors.
But as you can probably tell from the pictures in the gallery (next to this text), they’re not always perfectly in focus. They’re more like quick snapshots, really. That’s because I take most of my photos from behind the window, and the lighting isn’t always ideal (and sometimes the windows are in dire need of cleaning too, haha)
I’m often working when I spot the birds. I can glance sideways into the garden from my computer or drawing table and try to have my phone ready when I see something special. I get especially excited when an unexpected guest shows up. My absolute highlight was when a female sparrowhawk landed on the fence. She returned a few times and seemed to have her eye on one of our more dopey wood pigeons. Fortunately, she wasn’t quite fast enough, and a bloodbath in the garden was avoided.
OF course, I understand her need of hunting. That’s nature, after all. But I honestly wasn’t too keen on cleaning up a bloody and feathery crime scene in our garden. I’m still glad she took her business elsewhere.
The birds on the poster
At the beginning of this year, I decided it was finally time to create a nature poster featuring the birds that visit our garden. To make the poster more complete, I also included some other common garden birds found in the Netherlands.
The birds I’ve actually spotted in our garden include the blackbird, robin, thrush, wren, house sparrow, dunnock, Eurasian chaffinch, woodpecker, greenfinch, Eurasian siskin, wood pigeon, Eurasian collared dove, Eurasian jay, magpie, and Eurasian sparrowhawk. I often see the treecreeper in the trees on our street and have spotted the European goldfinch in our neighborhood. However, the other birds haven’t made an appearance in our garden. At least, not yet!
Additionally, I included the bullfinch, nuthatch, barn swallow, common swift, tree sparrow, starling, and jackdaw.
I even considered adding a crow, but there just wasn’t enough space. 😅
Identifying Birds with Illustrations
As a child, I loved identification illustrations. They are drawings that help you recognize an animal or plant and help you learn its name.
In my elementary school, there was a poster hanging in the classroom featuring Dutch water birds. It was painted by Marjolein Bastin, a famous Dutch illustrator of all things nature. Since my desk was close to the wall, I often spent long minutes staring at the drawings, trying to memorize the birds. I always wanted to learn new things.
The poster probably came from the Dutch magazine Libelle, which often featured posters by this well-known illustrator. The fold lines and staple holes were still clearly visible.
Often, when we were allowed to draw freely, I would copy a bird from the poster, like the great crested grebe, the coot, or the moorhen. By doing so, I learned their names by heart and have never had trouble distinguishing between these two water birds. (I know some friends of mine keep mixing them up).
But Why another Bird Poster? There Are Already So Many.
Well, the simple answer is: I had never made one before, and it seemed like a fun challenge.
Besides, I thought it would be great for a child’s room or a classroom. And I really wanted to try painting in a semi-realistic style.
The birds are still recognizable, and I aimed to paint them to scale, but with a slightly looser style so that you can see the brushstrokes.
Also, I couldn’t resist giving their beaks my signature MiriamBos™-smiles. Real birds often look very stern and serious. Of course, that’s simply because they don’t actually have any facial expressions. (But that didn’t stop me giving them one.)
Long story short(er): I put the poster in my shop, thinking how great it would be if one day it might hang in a child’s room or classroom and inspire kids to explore nature, just as Marjolein Bastin once did for me. Maybe I’ll spark curiosity in a little explorer who will start looking more closely and exclaim:
"Hey, a sparrow! … but WHAT kind of sparrow?"
Just saying "sparrow" isn’t enough. The same goes for tits, finches, and so on… You get the idea.
An Unexpected Brambling!
By the way. I have a funny anecdote. It so happened that I felt a bit betrayed by one particular little bird. When I started working on the poster, I wanted to include every bird I had seen in our garden. Just when I thought I had finished the poster, a certain brambling, a male in winter plumage, decided to grace our garden with a visit.
‘Oh, crap!’ was the first thing I thought.
Because that brambling wasn’t on my poster!
After doing some research, I decided that if I wanted to stay consistent, meaning I had to paint this bird three times. That’s because the male and female look different, and the male also has its own distinct winter and summer plumage.
Back to the drawing board!
It took some rearranging, but in the end, everything worked out.
And, if I’m honest, I think the poster’s composition improved a lot thanks to this addition. It looks more balanced now. It was a bit of a hassle, though, since I‘d already generated a lot of content images for this update and had to adjust everything all over again—even the shop listing had to be updated.
But I’m still happy with the change.
Call me a perfectionist, but my motto has always been:
"If you’re going to make something anyway, then you must do it right."
The art print is now available in my shop.
The print ships internationally, though fair warning—the text is in Dutch.
I’m thinking about making an English version if there’s any interest. (Just let me know).
I’m curious to hear what you think of the poster. Let me know in the comments!
Much love.
