A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home

Back in his room, Joseph collapses onto his cot and falls asleep. Celeste watches as the injured ivory-billed woodpecker limps about and pecks at any wood it can find. Celeste tries to encourage the wounded creature, but it doesn’t seem to understand her squeaks. The next day, Joseph takes the bird outside in the hope that being out in nature will revive its spirit, but it remains listless and refuses to eat. Later that evening, Audubon pins the woodpecker’s lifeless body to a wooden board. Joseph questions the painter’s practice of killing birds to paint their portraits, and Audubon angrily answers, “I am preserving their beauty forever. If I could paint their portraits as well another way, I would. Now go!” (146). Joseph obeys, but he wonders if there are any ivory-billed woodpeckers left.

One afternoon, a farmhand’s sons bring Joseph a wood thrush with “soft, creamy white breast feathers spotted with dark brown” (152). Joseph thanks the boys, gives them a coin, and places the thrush in the birdcage in his room. The next morning, Celeste introduces herself to the bird, who is named