Kids Bird Art Contest 2023

by Environmental Education Specialist & Biologist Sirena Lao

Kids Bird Art Contest winners presenting their artwork. From left to right: Ivanka Singh, Audrey Papasin, Max Moyle. Photo by Jing Zhu

Each year, SFBBO hosts a Kids Bird Art Contest where we invite children ages 3-17 to spend time outside, observe birds in nature, and record their observations in the form of art and writing. With our renewed mission statement, we wanted participants to help promote a sustainable future for birds. We asked kids to create artwork reflecting a memorable experience they have had with birds in nature, do research about the threats birds face, and write about how people can help birds...

​We were impressed by the quality of the submissions and inspired by the stories that kids share!  We received entries from all over the world, and our judges loved admiring everyone’s artwork and reading the stories. Seeing that young people are connecting deeply with nature makes us hopeful for the future of birds and their habitats!

We are very excited to share this year’s winning entries in each age category! Click on each image to enlarge and read their stories!

​Age 3-7 Category Winner:
​Ivanka Singh
​Steller's Jay

Our judges were impressed by how Ivanka was able to capture the colors and shape of the Steller's Jay. They also loved the the intensity of the colors and the textured background.

​​Age 8-11 Category Winner:
Max Moyle
​Brown Creeper

The judges enjoyed how the artistic details were brought to life with all the interesting information Max shared in the text, and they loved that everything was part of the artwork.

Age 12-17 Category Winner:
Audrey Papasin
​Great Horned Owl

The judges all agreed that Audrey's artwork and story were thoroughly detailed and stunning, and they also really liked the overall layout of the piece. Audrey also won last year's Age 8-11 category, so we were happy to see her enter the contest again this year!

Each of the winners was able to attend SFBBO's 2023 Annual Meeting held at the South Bay Yacht Club, where they received their prizes and were able to showcase their artwork in person to an enthusiastic crowd of bird lovers. We truly enjoyed meeting each artist and their families!

Because several pieces of artwork were so close to the top, we also awarded honorable mentions to three participants:

​Honorable Mention:
Olivia Chen, Age 3-7 Category
American Avocet

The judges enjoyed the texture and pose of the bird, and they appreciated Olivia's concrete suggestions to help birds. Olivia also finished 2nd place in last year's Kids Bird Art Contest in the same age category, so it's great to see her artwork and storytelling again!

​Honorable Mention:
Katherina Gong, Age 8-11 Category
​Common Raven

The judges commented on how the story really brought the artwork to life, noting how difficult it can be to illustrate birds that are entirely black.

​Honorable Mention:
Angela Wu, Age 8-11 Category
​American Robin

The judges thought Angela's artwork was beautiful, stylistic, and whimsical.


​Congratulations to all the winners!

There were of course many more wonderful pieces than we can highlight here. You can see all of the great artwork we received this year and comments from the judges by checking out this post on our Facebook page (no login required). We also had one participant share a video about her artwork! We hope seeing the artwork and reading the stories inspires more people to take action to protect the environment so future generations can continue to enjoy birds!

​In addition, many of the artists submitted optional photos of themselves holding up their artwork, so we wanted to share a collage highlighting these amazing young artists. We hope everybody who participated in the contest continues to tell stories, create art, and help birds!

Thanks so much to: everyone who participated in the contest; to the volunteer art contest judges, Marina Dimitrov, Katie Green, and Elizabeth Kalt; to Cargill for supporting SFBBO's outreach programs like this contest; and to the Oakland Zoo, Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, and CuriOdyssey for donating prizes! 

If you'd like to support the Kids Bird Art Contest, you can make a donation or contribute prizes for next year!