Lesser Yellowlegs by SBU One

Painted: July 25, 2025 

About the Mural: In the midst of a bustling park in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Montreal, next to the cooling spray of play fountains, a group of Lesser Yellowlegs splashes across a whimsical shoreline. The larger-than-life birds stretch across the wall of the park’s chalet building in a vibrant mural designed by artist SBU One and created in partnership with local arts nonprofit MU. The background features an abstract watery landscape with colorful blobs and coastal grasses, and the composition puts the species’ namesake body part front and center: “I wanted to show how long the legs are,” the artist says. 

Montreal sits near the top of the Lesser Yellowlegs’ far-flung range, which stretches from North America's boreal forest all the way down to South American wetlands. Lesser Yellowlegs can be spotted along shorelines throughout the city during their hemispheric migration, and pockets of green space like this park support a host of other species. On each side of the park chalet, small scenes feature birds that rely on urban habitat to rest and refuel, including  a Red-eyed Vireo perched among leaves, a White-throated Sparrow pecking along the ground, and a Barn Swallow swooping above the foliage. When park visitors come across this colorful menagerie, SBU One says, “I hope that people will give more attention to those birds, and be more aware of the fact that they are a part of their life.”

About the Birds: The Lesser Yellowlegs is an elegant shorebird with softly patterned gray-brown plumage, a slender neck and beak, and bright yellow legs. It can often be spotted snapping up insects and small crustaceans along marshes, ponds, and wetlands. While it remains widespread, the species has seen steep declines in the past few decades with the loss of its wetland habitat, making conservation all along the bird's hemispheric journey crucial to its survival. And like other long-distance migrants, the Lesser Yellowlegs faces a range of challenges as climate change transforms the places it depends on. If warming continues at its current pace, the species is set to be pushed out of 96 percent of its current summer range, according to Audubon’s Survival By Degrees report, remaining only in the far northern stretches of Canada.

The songbirds features in the mural also face threats from a warming planet: the Magnolia Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Waterthrush, White-throated Sparrow, Canada Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Eastern Kingbird, Mourning Warbler, and Barn Swallow. Taking action to limit climate change can help ensure these birds can thrive across a wider range of habitats. Meanwhile, maintaining green spaces like urban parks can provide all of these birds with the resources they need to thrive in the city.

About the Artist: SBU One is a painter and tattoo artist based in Montreal. Growing up in the French countryside, the artist says he naturally held an appreciation for the animal life around him. He also developed his practice as an artist, getting into digital painting and self-publishing comic books as a teenager. SBU One describes his work as direct and intuitive, inspired by the linear styles of etching. “When I do things, I’m mostly about feeling,” the artist says. “I think about it, and I research, but I mostly let my hand flow.” 

Today, his work often brings in natural elements as well as references to archaeology and mythology; he’s especially fascinated by artifacts that show how ancient civilizations related to the world around them. “The relationship with nature is so important,” SBU One says. “The most problematic thing that happened to humanity as a whole is how we cut ourselves off from everything that is natural.” He brings those influences to both tattoo designs and murals across Canada, which have included a scaly blue dragon in Moncton, a soaring “wind bird” in Laval, and a seascape of monsters and Viking ships in Montreal. Rather than working in a studio, he says he prefers the experience of creating murals outside and connecting with the community—like the kids at Van Horne Park who wanted to join in on his Lesser Yellowlegs creation. “To me, it makes a lot of sense that art is in a public space for everybody to see,” he says. “That’s like a gift for everybody to appreciate.”