The Owl & the Woodpecker introduces museum visitors to the most important species of owls and woodpeckers in North America.
Spectacular photos, informative text, and evocative audio recordings illustrate how these birds define and enrich the specific habitats on which they depend, and highlight the critical importance of conserving those habitats.
The Owl & the Woodpecker, a traveling exhibit from the Burke Museum in Seattle, is based on a book of the same title by Seattle photographer and author Paul Bannick. Bannick is known for his intimate wildlife photography, which supports environmental conservation efforts. His work has appeared in Audubon magazine, the National Wildlife Federation Guide to North American Birds, Smithsonian Guide to North American Birds, and in many other books, magazines, parks, and refuges in North America and Europe.
The Owl & the Woodpecker exhibit includes:
- Twenty-five large-format, framed color prints by Bannick
- Text descriptions of each bird written by the photographer, plus several thematic text panels highlighting the conservation issues affecting different owl and woodpecker habitats across North America
- Audio recordings of the calls and drumming sounds of the birds featured in the photographs
The museum has supplemented the striking photographs with some interesting related objects from the McClung’s permanent collections, including an eighteenth-century hand-colored engraving of a northern flicker by Mark Catesby; four books of nineteenth-century lithographic prints by John Gould, open to owl and woodpecker prints; a fine prehistoric Mississippian period ceramic vessel from Tennessee in the shape of an owl; a carved shell gorget featuring woodpecker heads, also Mississippian period; and owl “pellets.”
A snowy owl, Paul L. Bannick
The Owl and the Woodpecker: Photographs by Paul Bannick was organized by the Burke Museum, University of Washington, and created by Paul Bannick and Braided River, a partner of the Mountaineers Books.
The McClung Museum venue is sponsored by: Ardath and Joel E. Rynning Museum Operations Fund; Henley W. and Peggy H. Tate Museum Fund; Betty Davis Museum Fund; First Tennessee Foundation.