Making a map of critically endangered birds of the Philippines

September 18, 2024

I started work earlier this month on a poster for the Haribon Foundation. Haribon is focused on biodiversity conservation in the Philippines and though I it’s been a while since I left as their graphic designer, I still work on projects for them from time to time. I’m also still a member and plan to be one for a long while, so when the membership team asked for help on a map I jumped right in.

Species that are at risk of being lost forever are compiled in the Red List, put together by the International Union for Conservation of Nature or the IUCN. The category “Critically Endangered” is the list of species most at risk. The category next to this is “Extinct”. At the moment there are 15 bird species in the Philippines that are Critically Endangered, and Haribon members decided they wanted to highlight all of them in this campaign.

They recruited two members to illustrate the birds, Kathleen Baraan and Joshua Dejaño. The illustrations are amazingly detailed, and I couldn’t help appreciate them as I removed the paper backgrounds in preparation for the layout. The challenge at first was how to portray the locations of the birds in the Philippines. To figure this out I made simple sketches, placing each bird next to or near the island(s) they are from.

Bird placement sketch of a potential map — The messiness of initial planning is part of the process. I guess much like life!

Some birds are from the same area or island, like the Philippine Eagle and Isabela Oriole in Luzon. The above sketch also shows that the Sulu Hornbill, Sulu Racquet Tail, Sulu Bleeding-heart, and the Palawan Cockatoo can all be found in the Sulu archipelago. I had to figure out how to properly show this without things looking too cluttered, as they do in the sketch.

Isabela Oriole and Philippine Eagle on Haribon map — The top of the potential poster where we show that the Isabela Oriole and the Philippine Eagle can be found in Luzon. However an additional line from the eagle also points to Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, as they can also be found there.

I ended up using thin black lines that pointed to dots on the map, with the names of the islands or areas beside the dots. Another challenge was showing how some birds could only be found in a particular area of the island, but I decided that showing which island they could be found was enough given the limited space in the poster.

I made two studies and I’m now waiting for the remaining bird illustrations, and any input from the other members and Haribon staff. The 2nd study is practically the same, but with a blue background and the Philippine islands in green. I’m hoping they go with the version with the Philippines in red, and the white background, since it is simpler. Also I think having the Philippines in red implies a greater sense of urgency. Let’s see how this goes!