Support Conservation with a 2026 Nevada Bird-a-thon T-shirt
WINNER!
Baker Elementary School
Baker, Nevada, located in northeastern Nevada, is the gateway community to Great Basin National Park. This small but mighty community is home to just 120 residents, with 12 students attending the local school. The class studied birds of the Great Basin, focusing on species found in the Baker area. Each student researched a bird and created pencil and oil pastel drawings.
Their artwork was then combined into a single t-shirt design featuring: Golden Eagle (by Lincoln), Great Horned Owl (by Brennan), Northern Saw-whet Owl (by Daniel), Northern Harrier (by Dallee), Common Raven (by Wrangler), Black-billed Magpie (by Martin), Pinyon Jay (by Santiago), Townsend’s Solitaire (by Aranza), Mountain Chickadee (by Kody), Rock Wren (by Erick), Pygmy Nuthatch (by Decker), and Rufous Hummingbird (by Alexis).
Students loved learning about Great Basin birds and were excited to recognize many of the species in their design. They were especially intrigued by bird songs and said they will be listening for them when they’re outside. Erick was surprised to learn that the Rock Wren rarely flies higher than six feet off the ground and only for short distances. Daniel was amazed by the small size of the Northern Saw-whet Owl compared to the Great Horned Owl. Aranza was proud of herself for successfully drawing Townsend’s Solitaire.
Overall, the students had a wonderful time with this project—budding birders in the making!
Students artists posing with their artwork! Photo by Elizabeth Woolsey
Students artists posing with their artwork! Photo by Elizabeth Woolsey
Students artists posing with their artwork! Photo by Elizabeth Woolsey
Celebrate birds, community, and conservation with the 2026 Nevada Bird-a-thon commemorative T-shirt! Featuring unique artwork created by students of Baker Elementary School, this limited-edition tee highlights the creativity of young artists and the beauty of Nevada’s birds. 100% of proceeds go directly toward supporting the Nevada Bird-a-thon and GBBO’s mission.
Grab yours today and wear your support proudly!
By Goldie Shih
Second Place Design
Goldie Shih is a Taiwanese American artist based in Southern Nevada. Her art is shaped by passions for wildlife and plant ecology, environmental stewardship, & community building through shared outdoor adventures.
This design is inspired by her time doing field conservation work throughout the Southwest, where she saw loggerhead shrikes and their impaled prey on barbed wire and spiny desert plants. She finds them fascinating as songbirds with their raptor-like hunting behaviors and bandit-like black eye masks. You can find more of her work on Instagram @goldie.shih or at www.goldieshih.com
-Goldie Shih
Browse all submissions and hover over each image to read a message from the artist.
By Jade Gilliam
My name is Jade Gilliam, and I am an early-career biologist with a passion for scientific illustration and wildlife art. I moved to Las Vegas, NV, from Alabama last year and have fallen in love with the vast array of unique ecosystems here. To reflect that diversity, I included a few of my favorite species that inhabit different biomes across Nevada. In light of water scarcity, I wanted to not only showcase desert beauty but also highlight the life-giving water systems that keep our Silver State thriving. For the style of the piece, I imitated linocut printmaking using my iPad and Procreate (drawing software)."
Species depicted: Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), American Kestral (Falco sparverius), Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae), White-Faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi), Black-throated Gray Warbler (Setophaga nigrescens), Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), and Western Whiptail ( Aspidoscelis tigris).
Here is my Instagram handle: @Its_jade_boii_
TikTok: @thebackyardbiologist
by Frazail
I’ve always liked drawing, even though I didn’t think I was very good at it at first. Over time, I started changing things and trying to make my drawings more meaningful. That’s when I realized I could use art as a way to express myself and connect with others.
By Jake Hatcher
This design is a personal tribute to the wild, rugged beauty of Nevada. I wanted to take the state's most iconic symbols—the Mountain Bluebird and the golden Sagebrush—and layer them over that unmistakable Nevada silhouette to create something that feels like home. The goal was to use bold lines and vibrant colors to capture the energy of the high desert and the wide-open skies of the Great Basin. It's really just about celebrating the unique landscape and the natural spirit of the Silver State in a clean, modern way.
by Erin Wells
I love all wildlife. Birds are particularly interesting, they show amazing abilities from their songs to their intelligence to their engineering ability when nest building and more. GBBO and their work founded in solid science and good practice has helped countless birds for many years and added much knowledge to the birding community so it was wonderful to have an entry with them. The black throated sparrow was on the announcement for inspiration, and sparrows are favorites of mine. Digital art is a hobby that I've pursued for a few years now and taken some classes. I'm always learning from all the accomplished artists in the community especially those that create art from nature.
By Karla Shoup
Karla Shoup is a self-taught artist who resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has worked in multiple mediums including beads and fused glass, but is currently obsessing over watercolor. Her subjects are inspired by the wildlife she encounters in the urban and natural wildernesses of the Southwest, especially the feathered kind.
"Readiness" is a true story of an alert male Great-Tailed Grackle who posed bravely on a fire hydrant in a Petco parking lot. The colors were great and the juxtaposition of the bird protecting his territory and the fire hydrant ready to protect ours was too good to pass up!
Mountain Bluebirds by Candace Wells
Thank you to all the talented artists supporting the Bird-a-thon through their artwork!