Rebecca Gelernter
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nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
Rebecca Gelernter
@nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
7.5K followers 820 following 5.2K posts
Science illustrator and designer. I like things with feathers. She/her

Portfolio: www.nearbirdstudios.com
Prints: www.inprnt.com/gallery/nearbirdstudios
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nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
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. Twelve detailed vector illustrations of brains, arranged in two columns, one without blood vessels and one with. More anatomical layers are added from top to bottom, starting from a midsagittal view and ending with lateral. At the bottom left is the wordmark "MedStudy", for whom I did this work. 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.
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
shannonhale.bsky.social
I love love love that they hired a painter to do these portraits and then acknowledged her by name. Artists of all kinds supporting each other is so beautiful.
rianjohnson.bsky.social Rian Johnson @rianjohnson.bsky.social · 1d
Our gorgeous #WakeUpDeadMan end credit portraits, painted from life by Isabella Watling. We’re still in theaters, see my pinned post for a theater finder!
December 7, 2025 at 3:31 AM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
STOP THE PRESSES I booped Louie's beak and he booped my finger back, as he often does, but this time he said "boop" 🧡
A cute little parrot getting his neck scratched while sitting on a sofa.
December 7, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social
Playing in the wind
December 6, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
megugu.bsky.social
I love magpies ♥
Done with black ink Waterman
#traditionalart #ink
December 5, 2025 at 7:13 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
Ooohhh I love this
evolletters.bsky.social Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social · 3d
Check out our cover article by @timjanicke.bsky.social and colleagues about the role of sexual selection in animal speciation. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic.... The beautiful illustration is by Katharina Bóth.
December 6, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
nataliebsketching.bsky.social
Support us dry dry humans
A two-panel comic drawing. The first panel says “why use water-hungry AI…”, accompanied by an abstract drawing of a dark cloud extending fingers into Earth or water. The second panel says “when you can support dehydrated artists?”. The image is of a skull next to a paintbrush and a palette. The skull says “we’re very low impact”.
December 2, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
berkeleyside.org
California unveiled an online portal to report potentially illegal activity by federal law enforcement, including ICE agents, to the state Department of Justice.
You can now report crimes by federal agents in California
California unveiled an online portal to report potentially illegal activity by federal law enforcement, including ICE agents, to the state Department of Justice.
www.berkeleyside.org
December 5, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
rosemarymosco.com
Another comic from this past year. Sometimes I'm in awe about how incredibly small birds can be.
In a comic strip panel, person in a red shirt walks through a sunlit forest. The text says "Sometimes I go looking for a tiny part of the universe." "This part only takes up as much space as: half an apple, a salt shaker, or 2 ping pong balls." Each of these items is shown. Galaxies and stars swirl as the text says "But somehow, in an unfathomably huge universe," and then there's a complex mess of forest leaves, with one tiny Wilson's warbler in one corner, and the text says "this one tiny part". There's a close up of the warbler, blazing yellow against a sparkly yellow background, and the text says "can fill up my whole heart."
December 3, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
americanbeetles.bsky.social
I, too, visited this exhibition and took pictures of my favorite guys
A sprightly lacertid from a 17th century oil painting Frog, peering plaintively around grasses Shrump valgine scarab hiding in effectively in a flower
December 5, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
levihastings.bsky.social
A cluster of juvenile Pachycephalosaurs shelter from an early spring downpour as the adult members of the clan stand watch against roaming predators. A pair of small pterosaurs attempt to stay dry beneath a fallen log nearby. #fossilfriday #paleoart
A paleoart illustration by Levi Hastings depictinga a cluster of juvenile Pachycephalosaur dinosaurs shelter from an early Spring downpour as the adults of the clan stand watch against roaming predators. A pair of small pterosaurs attempt to stay dry beneath a fallen log.
December 5, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
Some of my favorite Guys from the MFA's Rachel Ruysch exhibit 🎨
Painting detail: a lizard looks up, reaching with one foot, mouth open and little teeth showing. This one reminds me of a Bosch creature. Painting detail: an orthopterid peeks out between two arched pieces of grass. Below it is a large, light pink flower. Painting detail: a hairy caterpillar, maybe some kind of tussock moth. It's lale brownish green with black bands, a bristly head, and several distinct tufts of hairs down its back. Painting detail: a stag beetle on a striped green squash.
December 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
ultrainfinite.bsky.social
Claude⭐
December 5, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
chuckdrawsthings.bsky.social
notice period
PANEL 1: a text conversation - an incoming text asks "hey! wanna hang out tonight?" the owner of the phone replies "aw thanks but i can't tonight" PANEL 2: the sender asks "what about tomorrow night?" and the response is "yeah sure!" PANEL 3: a pigeon sitting on a green sofa puts their phone down. eyes closed, they inhale deeply PANEL 4: the panel turns dark blue. the pigeon sits, legs crossed, wings on their knees, looking intense. there is a buffer icon above them. big red text reads "PREPARING FOR SOCIALISATION" and below that in white says "minimum time required: 24 hours"
December 4, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
lolennui.bsky.social
they should have a separate color of the year for people who haven’t lost the will to live
Neutral grey Pantone swatch with the caption, “Pantone's 2026 color of the year is historic and, technically, not a color at all - meet Cloud Dancer, the first-ever white shade to receive the designation from the world's color authority.”
December 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
Weird nervous system thing: I had to get lidocaine for a filling replacement this morning, and while half my face was numb, I got a tiny little itch under my lip. Tried to scratch it and, of course, nothing. But the itch remained! Very strange.
December 4, 2025 at 7:01 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
Medical illustration is usually pretty clinical, but let it not be said that nobody ever got weird with it. That's not a coral reef those three fetal skeletons are standing on, it's a flesh sculpture including blood vessels, kidney stones...are those alveoli?...and a bird. By Frederik Ruysch 🐡🎨
Historical medical illustration print featuring, well, a mound of anatomical bits, a bird on a nest, and three fetal skeletons holding a sickle, a beaded necklace, some bones on a string, and a suspiciously veiny handkerchief, which a fetus is wiping its eye socket with. It's pretty odd.
December 4, 2025 at 6:55 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
Some of my favorite Guys from the MFA's Rachel Ruysch exhibit 🎨
Painting detail: a lizard looks up, reaching with one foot, mouth open and little teeth showing. This one reminds me of a Bosch creature. Painting detail: an orthopterid peeks out between two arched pieces of grass. Below it is a large, light pink flower. Painting detail: a hairy caterpillar, maybe some kind of tussock moth. It's lale brownish green with black bands, a bristly head, and several distinct tufts of hairs down its back. Painting detail: a stag beetle on a striped green squash.
December 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
The decadence of deciding not to put the bins out 😌
December 4, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
calacademy.bsky.social
Please join us in sending heartfelt thanks and condolences to the extraordinary team of animal care specialists and veterinarians who provided the best care for Claude every day. And thank you for loving Claude so fiercely over the years.
December 2, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
clairewillett.bsky.social
truly feels like every day we are waiting for someone in the press room to point out that the emperor has no clothes

someone will, someday, and the tide will turn, and these people’s children and grandchildren will be deeply ashamed of them; but they aren’t there yet, and it’s maddening
rmayemsinger.bsky.social Randi Mayem Singer @rmayemsinger.bsky.social · 5d
He can't stay awake. Or walk. Or speak. I'm so sick of the GOP denial. The embarrassing flattery parades. The complicit press standing silent while he drones on incomprehensibly or insults colleagues who dare to question his lies. Or laughing obligatorily at his non-jokes. I'm just so tired of it.
December 2, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
pftompkins.bsky.social
A few years ago I got to play a show at Cal Academy right by Claude’s enclosure and would like to retroactively consider it a performance FOR Claude

RIP Pale King
Claude the Albino Alligator Passes Away at Age 30
Beloved Academy icon will be dearly missed.
www.calacademy.org
December 2, 2025 at 11:36 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
TINANEW
albertonykus.bsky.social Alberta Claw @albertonykus.bsky.social · 5d
New species of tinamou, the slaty-masked tinamou (Tinamus resonans): mapress.com/zt/article/v... 🪶🧪 (📷Luis A. Morais)
Four photographs of a ground-dwelling, somewhat partridge-like bird on a forest floor. The bird is mostly brownish in color, with a dark gray "mask" over its eyes and the top of its head.
December 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
mossworm.bsky.social
thrips
flat color cartoon drawings of several thrips, small insects which may have four wings or none. clockwise from top left: a thrips with very complex fringed wings, a thrips with large crab claws, two drawings of thrips with no wings and a dark brown front end and tan back, and a long and thin black thrips with red legs photos of the real animals that are drawn in the previous image; Arachisothrips has large and complex wings, Stephanothrips is wingless with a dark brown head and thorax, Idolothrips is very long and thin, and Carcinothrips has very large crab claw-like forearms
December 2, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Gelernter
tinylongwing.bsky.social
I'm terrible at self-marketing but I will say that if you want to buy prints, today is a pretty good day to do it. Also if there's something you want a print of that I haven't uploaded yet, let me know (I'm very behind on updating!)

#SciArt #BirdArt #bskynightmarket

www.inprnt.com/gallery/tiny...
Screenshot from my INPRNT store showing lots of bird prints available, all marked to 25% off
December 1, 2025 at 7:33 PM
nearbirdstudios.bsky.social
An interesting take on adjusting phylogenetic trees containing humans for more effective #scicomm
prosanta.bsky.social Prosanta Chakrabarty @prosanta.bsky.social · 6d
New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social

On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
Depictions of evolution where a phylogeny often has humans on the far right or top can give an impression of evolution being progressive of leading to ‘increased complexity’ when it does not. Top figure shows such a phylogeny which can look the same as ‘the March of progress’ depiction most commonly used to depict evolution (showing monkey to man erroneous march of evolution) - instead swiveling some nodes on a phylogeny where humans are shown closer to the center (which doesn’t change relationships) can lead to better ‘tree thinking’
December 1, 2025 at 7:37 PM