Narca Moore-Craig
Narca Moore-Craig was born in Texas, and her early memories are of hours spent in treetops with Red-headed Woodpeckers. Her path has wound from the Permian Basin of Texas through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, coastal Oregon, the deciduous forests of Illinois, the Gray Ranch of New Mexico, and the deserts of California and Arizona. Along the way, she first majored in Spanish at the University of Colorado, then built a profession as a wildlife artist and—to give greater precision and depth to her art—earned a B.A. in biology from the University of California, Riverside, where she was the first woman to win the Jaeger Award in Field Biology. She was also the first woman president of Western Field Ornithologists, and currently serves on the Arizona Bird Committee. Narca maintains a beautifully illustrated blog recounting her adventures in Arizona and around the world.
The degree in biology has had unexpected spin-offs: in addition to stints conducting field research, for 25 years Narca has led natural history and birding tours to six continents, including five voyages to Antarctica. Her enthusiasm, passion, and breadth of knowledge are well known to those who’ve joined her tours, as is her delight in sharing adventures afield. She has guided for many nonprofit organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, the Smithsonian Institution, and Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Among her many interests as a birder are seabirds and the birds of oceanic islands.
Narca paints and draws what has always been her anchor and grounding: the wild. For decades she has focused on bird art, seeking to portray the essential dignity of each species. Her award-winning art has been featured in publications of the American Museum of Natural History, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and the American Birding Association, among many others. Dian Fossey hung in her office a portrait that Narca painted of the gorilla Digit. Recent books containing her illustrations include Raptors of North America, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, A Birder’s Guide to Southeast Arizona, A Birder’s Guide to the Rio Grande Valley, A Guide to Southern Arizona Bird Nests and Eggs, A Guide to Birds of the Anza Borrego Desert, The Travails of Two Woodpeckers: Ivory-bills and Imperials, and The Raptors of New Mexico. Her media include just about anything, from watercolor, acrylics, and pen and ink to handpainted tiles and even a bit of woodcarving. Particularly well known is Narca’s contribution to New Mexico’s Trail of the Painted Ponies. Six feet high and nine feet long, Horsefeathers was stabled in the Albuquerque airport and in the rotunda of the Arizona State Capitol before being sold to benefit the Malpai Borderlands Group, an international consortium of ranchers, scientists, and environmentalists working together to find practical solutions to land use problems.
Wildlife art and birding work hand in hand for Narca, both teaching us to be careful observers, both immersing us in wilderness.
Narca lives with her husband, Alan Craig, in Portal, Arizona, in the shadow of the Chiricahua Mountains, and treasures the time spent with friends there.