When UI Press and I started talking about Where Do Birds Live? the scope started reaching beyond tallgrass Midwest prairies. I was excited about the challenge. So many distinct ecosystems and over 500 bird species are represented within our country! But when the reality of the space limitations of a 32-page picture book set in, it was time to make some hard choices. There were ecosystems I was more familiar with and knew I could illustrate with heart, so they were decided upon early on. We knew we wanted to cover the map as evenly as possible, so a child from any state would have a chance of being familiar with at least one of the habitats in the book. So geographical location was very important. We also wanted each profiled bird to be realistically one that a child might see. So we said no to rarities. We also stayed away from too generalist a bird, birds that have adapted to many places. Plus, the species all had to breed and summer over where I depicted them. With the help of several bird experts and Holly Carver, the former director of UI Press, we decided upon the 14 featured sections. The bobolink is a signature bird for the tallgrass prairie; I liked that the male and female had different appearances. I also wanted to include a typical backyard habitat, like I have here in Iowa City, so the little ruby-throated hummer came to mind. Those two were easy to decide on. I wanted to start and end in the Midwest, in homage to my adopted roots here in Iowa and also to UI Press’s core mission of showcasing regional interests. The other habitats took longer to decide on, but in the end, a nice variety of environments and their birds made the cut.
You created more than 60 scratchboard illustrations for this book plus a front and a back cover and a map. How long did this take you, and how did you figure out what to illustrate?
Discussions on the book started in early 2008. I took that summer to research and build a scaffolding for the materials and, basically, organize how I would present the images and text. I researched for text and illustration at the same time. I made folders for each featured bird and habitat, filling them with notes and reference materials.
I knew the most laborious part of the book would be creating the illustrations. I preferred to finish them before beginning the text, although I wrote bits and pieces when I got a chance. After deciding that each habitat we had chosen got its own two-page spread, I started to rough out large, detailed illustrations of each particular habitat plus smaller illustrations of each featured bird from that habitat. I wanted kids to see the bird depicted where it lived but also get a close-up view of each species. The roughs take several months to draw; they have to be very accurate. I began scratchboarding and painting the final illustrations in spring 2009 and completed them in the summer. The text came next. I wanted the tone of the book to be friendly yet factual and not too laden with conservation issues. Again, space is always a concern for a picture book. Each habitat spread could afford space-wise only about 200 words, so thorough editing was essential. By the end of the summer of 2009, everything was at UI Press, ready to be designed and then sent to the printer. So all in all, the project was in my studio for a year and a half.
—Claudia McGehee, Where Do Birds Live?
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