Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rebecca Gelernter

@nearbirdstudios.bsky.social

7.1K followers 800 following 4.9K posts

Science illustrator and designer. I like things with feathers. She/her Portfolio: www.nearbirdstudios.com Prints: www.inprnt.com/gallery/nearbirdstudios

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · Oct 8

Hello #PortfolioDay! I'm Rebecca, a science and medical illustrator who loves birds and other feathered creatures 🐡🪶🧪

Portrait of a female Great Hornbill, a large bird, down to the upper chest. Her beak is huge, with a yellow-to-orange maxilla and damaged casque and a pale blue-grey mandible. She has a black mask covering her face and the base of her bill. Her eye is silvery and has nice lashes. Her neck shades from yellow through raw sienna to a pale burnt sienna, and her body feathers and the top of her wing are black.

Gouache painting of Anchiornis huxleyii, a small feathered dinosaur, climbing through branches. He's mostly grey with black-spotted white wing, leg, and tail feathers and a rusty red crest and cheek feathers.

Watercolor illustration of a Red-and-yellow Barbet, seen at 45°. His head is mostly red and his belly is creamy white. His wing is black with white spots, and a band of this pattern circles his breast. His tail is banded black and white. He's glaring at the viewer, challenging the audacity of any who would dare to look upon him.

7 71 330

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 6h

Double-hinged, like a saloon door

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Chris Fisher @fisherspeaks.bsky.social · 1d

We are now able to experience Whooping Cranes in ways that were unimaginable only a few decades ago. It's probably been hundreds of years since flocks, numbering in the dozens of individuals, danced together in the warm autumn light. #Birds #conservation #SK

8 60 270

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Natee (they/them) @himmapaan.bsky.social · 4d

I would have liked to have filmed the inking of this tiny wren and the shrub's very fine branches with this brush, but I needed to get especially close to the piece for this and it would have been too awkward.

1/2

Detail from a silhouette drawing in black ink of a tiny bird perched on a small, leafless shrub. The head of a hen just makes it into the crop, opposite the bird. The drawing is very fine and intricate. The detail shown is roughly comparable in size to two postage stamps, and is photographed with a penny and the traditional Chinese brush the piece was drawn with.

8 54 450

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 15h

No worries! That exact thing had been bugging me for a while. Never gonna install the damn thing!

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Paul Willson @pauljwillson.bsky.social · 19h

Drama on the Isle of Lewis

6 65 610

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 18h

You can circumvent that weird barrier by deleting everything after the ? in the URL, it gets rid of the popup.

1 1

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 1d

Perfect amount of detail 😁

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Wildmaven @wildmaven.bsky.social · 1d

Carolina wren just scratched through the fallen leaves just 10 feet from where I sat. It vocalized the entire time and now my day is complete. ❤️ 🪶 This is why I don’t rake leaves.

1 18

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 1d

I really love your approach to grass!

1 1

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 1d

Steller's Crow

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 1d

I got laid off from my medical illustration job with a medical education publishing company last year, and I really hope this isn't what they tried to replace me with, but...I do have suspicions.

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Claire Zagorski, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · 2d

A student on TikTok has been documenting her journey with a professor who “wrote” the anatomy textbook and it’s all a bunch of AI hallucinations.

She’s saying that, understandably, the students are doing super poorly!

Behold what we’re teaching the healthcare professionals of tomorrow:

A diagram of the bones and (some) deep muscles of the hand and forearm. AI says that we only have four digits. It’s also identified a tendon as the median nerve, another tendon as the ulnar nerve, among other issues.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the neck. It hallucinated the “ennocleidomasid” muscle, and the “anterior scalpalin muscle”.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the lateral thigh. It says that the gluteus Maximus (the big juicy butt muscle) is on the anterior side. It also points to the quadriceps muscle and says “attattment”. It also says that the same structure is the tibia AND the deep fascia of the leg.

An AI generated diagram of the bones of the hand and forearm. This time AI says we have 6 digits. It also says that the radius is the ulnar artery. Among other many issues.

71 540 1.3K

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

kat, ghost of helenruthsghost @chaoskat.bsky.social · 2d

Salvation Army seen feeding ICE today. For anyone who doesn't already know about their bigotry, here is more, No need to give them your money this Christmas, or ever.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 2d

It’s dinner time for the police. Appears to be pizza from a Salvation Army van.

Broadview’s “free speech” curfew starts soon, at 6pm.

6 4.6K 8.1K

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Nikkolas Smith @4nikkolas.bsky.social · 3d

after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US.
𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕.
𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.

310 8K 24K

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

mbbendt @bendts2cents.bsky.social · 3d

Pretty sure that when you have giant frogs everywhere, God is very disappointed in how you are treating immigrants.

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 4d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

41 690 3.2K

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 3d

Interesting, I wonder what's up with that.

1 1

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

I just say bag because I am a peasant

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

Relatively big-eyed creatures are usually cute

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

I think it's a public domain eye monster

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

Eyeball spiders are sadly not in my budget this year, I just like checking out the weird skeletons!

1 1

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

Feeling the loss of Joann Fabrics' ridiculous Halloween decorations this year, but I did find this incredible creature in Michael's

A large, bloodshot, blue eye with spider legs. Or a spider with an eyeball for a body? The legs look more like warped black bones than anything you'd normally associate with an arthropod. I'm holding it up in front of a pegboard with more decorations.

3 7 70

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

Why must things be this way

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

Fantastic 🙃

Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter

Paul Tobin @paultobin.bsky.social · 4d

Trying to gauge how much of a shock it would be, to me, if the top of RFK Jr's head popped off and two rats and a giant worm crawled out and I think the answer is...none?

10 5 66

Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 4d

Goddamnit, I just bought these stupid programs a few months ago. If they add AI, that's basically money down the drain.

1 2