Natural History Museum: Birds
The Natural History Museum wanted to move away from its century-old permanent exhibition style to create a modern, interactive temporary experience. Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre tracks a 150 million year narrative of adaptation and survival. By combining the museum’s historic taxidermy collections with advanced technology provided by Sysco, we designed an installation that shifts visitor perspectives, explores human environmental impacts, and addresses the critical future of biodiversity.
The Natural History Museum wanted to move away from its century-old permanent exhibition style to create a modern, interactive temporary experience. Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre tracks a 150 million year narrative of adaptation and survival. By combining the museum’s historic taxidermy collections with advanced technology provided by Sysco, we designed an installation that shifts visitor perspectives, explores human environmental impacts, and addresses the critical future of biodiversity.
Shifting From Century Old Galleries to Living History
The Natural History Museum presented a distinct creative tension. Their permanent galleries date back over a century. While authoritative, they rely on traditional display philosophies. For the temporary exhibition Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre, the museum’s ambition was to break this format entirely. They needed to convey a massive 150 million year story of evolution, adaptation, and human impact. The challenge was moving beyond static specimens behind glass. The museum required an approach where visitors would genuinely connect with the survival journey of avian species. They needed an experience that could make urban pigeons and prehistoric ancestors feel equally vital, prompting the audience to understand their responsibility in protecting the future of biodiversity.
Merging Historic Taxidermy With Spatial Sound Networks
We addressed this ambition by ensuring every technical decision remained in service of the story. Rather than deploying technology for its own sake, we paired the museum’s vast taxidermy collections with bespoke hardware configurations to alter visitor perspective. Upon entering, a continuous architectural soundscape envelopes the audience, establishing immediate geographic context. We engineered tactile, sensory touch points allowing visitors to feel the rapid heartbeat of a hummingbird. To communicate winter survival constraints, we integrated an interactive video game where users guide a jay through seasonal hazards. Furthermore, environmental sustainability directed our physical design. We repurposed structural components from past temporary exhibits to minimise waste, coordinating hardware purchases to guarantee future reuse.
Pepper’s ghost of a hummingbird. Image by The Story Engineers. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum.
Projection mapping comparing bird beak shapes. Image by The Story Engineers. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum.
Reusable wooden structure displaying taxidermy birds. Image by The Story Engineers. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum.
Record Breaking Single Species Attendance and Behavioral Shift
The data demonstrates the clear impact of this approach. Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre became the most successful single-species exhibition in the museum’s history. Running from May 24, 2024, to January 5, 2025, the exhibit broke internal revenue projections and welcomed 107,191 paying visitors. Developed in partnership with the RSPB, guest evaluations heavily praised the sensory elements and actionable conservation messaging. This high footfall directly stimulated on-site retail growth across secondary museum cafes and gift shops during its eight-month run. This milestone contributed to the Natural History Museum cementing its position as the UK’s most-visited indoor attraction.
A skeleton of an Archaeopteryx, generally accepted by palaeontologists as the oldest-known bird. Image by The Story Engineers. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum.
Interactive touchscreen educational games. Image by The Story Engineers. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum.
A hopeful vision of a carbon-neutral Britain in 2050, projected onto canvas. Image by The Story Engineers. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum.