Migratory Pathways by George Boorujy

Painted: June 2024

Sponsored by: Red Hook Conservancy

About the Mural: For artist George Boorujy, the long, low shape of this mural site—which spans 963 feet of a retaining wall around Brooklyn's Red Hook Park—called to mind the soaring passages of migrating birds. “I wanted to use the length of this site to show the length of these migration journeys,” says Boorujy, who lives in nearby Gowanus and has been swimming at the pool across the street for decades. His colorful creation features eight bird species that travel different distances to New York, whether they’re nesting in the area or just passing through. 

The birds are organized by the length of their journeys—from the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, which treks up from Venezuela, down to the Eastern Meadowlark, which pops over from New Jersey. Between the paired species portraits, silhouettes of birds in flight soar over colorful stretches—turquoise, pink, sunset orange—lined with the names of the locations they pass over. Boorujy sees a strong connection between these avian travelers and their human neighbors. After all, “we all come from somewhere,” he says. “We all have migrated to survive, on some level.” 

No matter where they’re coming from, these birds depend on pockets of greenery in the city to find food and fuel their migrations, as suggested by the Great-crested Flycatcher, painted in the act of munching on a wasp. The mural highlights eight native plant species that support birdlife in the area: Fragrant Sumac, Sweetgum, Virginia Creeper, Canada Goldenrod, Black-eyed Susan, Hairy Aster, Upright Sedge, and Lowbush Blueberry. 

About the Birds: For Boorujy, each pair of birds in the mural has a different purpose and dynamic. At one end, there’s the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Great-crested Flycatcher—two colorful and eye-catching birds that invite people into the work. The similarly colored Philadelphia Vireo and Yellow-throated Vireo are like “little twins” staring you down, he says, making you take a second look to notice the differences between them. The acrobatic Yellow-rumped Warbler peers out over the Worm-eating Warbler, which lives lower in the trees with its more drab plumage (or, as Boorujy calls it, “subtle, sophisticated styling”). Rounding out the group are the Eastern Towhee, with its beak open to give out its distinctive call, and the Eastern Meadowlark, boldly staring down the viewer.

Climate change threatens all of these species, according to Audubon’s Survival by Degrees report, though its dangers take different forms. Take the Eastern Towhee: If climate change continues at its current rate, the species is projected to lose 83 percent of its current summer range, but a smaller 8 percent of its winter grounds. Meanwhile, the Yellow-throated Vireo sees that balance reversed: The species is projected to lose 84 percent of its wintering grounds in North America at the current rate of warming, compared to 29 percent of its summer range. The birds' vulnerability across the continent highlights Boorujy's message that protecting birds means caring for all the places they rely on during their journeys.

About the Artist:  George Boorujy is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work focuses on human relationships to wildlife and the environment, including through realistic portraits of different species. “A lot of kids like to draw animals,” Boorujy says. “I literally never grew out of that.” He has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. He is also a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts, where he teaches drawing, painting, anatomy, comparative animal anatomy and Bio Art.

For Boorujy, who originally planned on becoming a marine biologist, both science and art are about trying to make people more aware of what’s around them. His five previous works with the Audubon Mural Project—which include a tough-looking “gang of warblers” and a Greater Sage-Grouse, whose habitat is threatened by fossil fuel extraction—aim to remind New Yorkers that they, too, are stewards of these birds’ habitats. “We think of ourselves as separate from nature, and we are very much not,” Boorujy says. “So, trying to re-knit those connections is the most important part.”