A Golden-winged Warbler Sounds the Alarm

When Deirdre Murphy embarks on a painting, she often begins far from her easel. Ecology is a central theme in her practice, and the Philadelphia-based artist regularly consults with researchers and dives into data to inform her paintings. To create this portrait of the Golden-winged Warbler, one of her first steps was visiting the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, which houses an extensive specimen collection—including dozens of the striking songbirds.

Examining the birds with a magnifying glass, Murphy gleaned minute details that would be hard to capture in a photograph, like how feather shape and texture vary across different parts of the body. The specimens—which have been collected by naturalists, ornithologists, and zoologists and date back at least a century and a half—brought her closer to the bird both physically and emotionally. “I was able to hold the little warbler and have this visceral connection to this ephemeral being, and this tenderness, this finiteness,” she says.

Murphy set up a mini studio at the academy and began sketching the warblers with colored pencils and watercolors. She also met with Nate Rice, the associate curator of the ornithology collection, who told her about the birds’ behavior. Murphy’s interest was piqued by his description of Golden-winged Warblers singing. They throw back their heads, lift their chests, and emit a high-pitched seee-bzzz, bzzz. She sought out a photograph of the bird in that proud stance to reference for her final oil-on-canvas painting, a posture that conveys the message: “Sound the alarm.”

Murphy, who teaches at Lehigh University, describes herself as a research-driven studio artist. She’s long had an interest in science and often consults or collaborates with ornithologists, behavioral biologists, and botanists. For this piece, she studied maps and data visualizations of the species’ range and migration routes; the birds travel from breeding habitats in the Great Lakes and Appalachian Mountains down to wintering grounds in Central and South America. Murphy then remixed some of the colors and textures from those academic sources into the background of her portrait. “I like how quirky scientists are, the way that they visualize their data,” she says. “The colors that they use sometimes are so oddly weird that I’ll borrow them.”

The final result is a bit like a kaleidoscopic collage. The Golden-winged Warbler, with the deep black throat patch and eye mask of a male, is rendered in fine detail singing out from a branch of a maple tree, surrounded by the familiar outline of the Gulf and bright lines of abstract color woven throughout. The piece is on display this summer as part of Murphy’s exhibition at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove in Pennsylvania.

Although Murphy thinks it’s important to raise awareness about endangered or threatened species, she didn’t want to depict a bird on the brink for this piece. “I know the anxiety that comes with that,” she says. “That helplessness of, ‘Something’s already gone,’ or, ‘Something’s almost ready to disappear.’” Instead, she opted for a species at a tipping point. The Golden-winged Warbler is classified as near threatened, and its populations have dropped steeply in recent decades, likely due to habitat loss—but it isn’t necessarily doomed to further decline.

Private landowners have restored thousands of acres of the birds’ preferred forest habitat in hopes of helping populations rebound. And Murphy points out that there are easy ways for individuals to help, whether by planting native pollinator gardens or taking simple, affordable steps to help prevent Golden-wings and other birds from striking home windows.

She hopes people come away from her painting feeling empowered to make a difference. “To do the right thing is the only thing to do,” she says. “Be a good person—leave this planet better than we found it.”

This piece originally ran in the Summer 2026 issue. To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.