Illustration, design, maps
for nature.

Catowl Design Studio works with birdwatching societies, nature education centres and universities, turning field knowledge into things people can read, use and take home.

Landscape seabird towel: terns, jaegers, boobies, frigatebirds and loons over the sea around a red island with a beacon, titled Hong Kong Seabirds in Chinese. — Hong Kong Seabirds towel, front and back, for HKBWS and Swire Trust

From field notes
to finished print

Every project starts with real species and real places: seabirds, forest birds, the bees and egrets of the fishponds. We draw, lay out and package the material, and build story maps and small field tools as well.

Graphic design

Select a piece to see the full artwork.

Illustration styles

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Watercolour and calligraphy
Field-guide painting
Comic
ID sketch
Simple watercolour

Five-panel panorama: jaegers, terns, boobies, frigatebirds and loons over the sea around a small island with a beacon. — Hong Kong Seabirds HKBWS and Swire Trust, 2023

Hong Kong Seabirds tote bag: a Red-footed Booby on deep green, once in line and once in watercolour. — Hong Kong Seabirds HKBWS and Swire Trust, 2023

Cover of Hong Kong Forest Birds Vol. 1: a Chinese Bulbul, Mountain Bulbul, Chestnut Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul and Common Emerald Dove on a green ground. — Hong Kong Forest Birds HKBWS and Swire Trust, 2026 More volumes to come

Cover of Hong Kong Forest Birds Vol. 2: a Chinese Hwamei, Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler, Blue-winged Minla, Rufous-capped Babbler and Huet's Fulvetta on a brown ground. — Hong Kong Forest Birds HKBWS and Swire Trust, 2026 More volumes to come

Unrolled label for longan honey: green fishponds, longan blossom and a beekeeper. — Fishpond Honey packaging HKBWS, 2023–2026

Unrolled label for mangrove honey: egrets and mangrove flowers under a lilac sky. — Fishpond Honey packaging HKBWS, 2023–2026

HKBWS backdrop for ReThink HK 2025: hand-drawn fishponds, fields and wetlands run down the middle, with three themes (sustainable local farming and fishing, protecting birds in the city, and community education) and white silhouettes of a spoonbill, swallows and other birds. — ReThink HK 2025 booth HKBWS, 2025

2025 tall panel introducing HKBWS habitat management, research, regional conservation and education, laid out with hand-drawn fishponds, fields and bird silhouettes, with volunteer, membership and donation details below. — HKCSS S+ Expo panel and leaflet HKBWS, 2024–2025

A4 leaflet, outside: HKBWS and its four areas of work on the left, the "people and birds in harmony" title and hand-drawn fishponds on the right. — HKCSS S+ Expo panel and leaflet HKBWS, 2024–2025

2024

2025

Shui Hau logo and T-shirts HKBWS Shui Hau Nature Conservation Management Agreement project, 2024–2025 The logo is built on the shape of a rice grain: the character for water with rice stalks on the left, the character for mouth with a jacana shaped like a water caltrop on the right. Together they read "Shui Hau".

Staff T-shirt print: a white line drawing of a Yellow-breasted Bunting head, labelled eye-ring, crown-stripe, supercilium and more. — Yellow-breasted Bunting T-shirts HKBWS, 2023

Volunteer version of the same Yellow-breasted Bunting drawing. — Yellow-breasted Bunting T-shirts HKBWS, 2023

Report cover: white waterbirds fly through the blue silhouette of a birdwatcher and telescope. — China Coastal Waterbird Census Report HKBWS, 2024

Feather identification sheet: hand-drawn wing, tail, bristle, filoplume, contour, semiplume and down feathers, labelled in Chinese and English. — Little Bird, Big Knowledge: feathers Ho Koon Nature Education Centre, 2026

Matching card layout: twelve cards pairing breeding and non-breeding plumage, with the card back and print specification. — Little Bird, Big Knowledge: matching cards Ho Koon Nature Education Centre, 2026 Photos: Henry Lui, Grigory Evtukh

Maps and web

The same subjects, in a form you can explore online.

SH EcoGuide

HKBWS

An online pocket guide to the wildlife of Shui Hau, South Lantau: the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, amphibians, reptiles, fish and plants most likely each month, with an illustrated tour map, a field guide and a birds-to-scale chart. Participants enter with an event password.

Open the EcoGuide (opens in a new tab)

Regenerating Lantau Mountain Camp

CUHK

A bilingual website that tells the camp's history and architecture through interactive ArcGIS maps, with guidelines for visitors.

History (opens in a new tab)Architecture (opens in a new tab)Visitor guidelines (opens in a new tab)

Opening screen of the Nocturnal Birds on Lantau story map: an owl photographed by an infrared camera at night.

Discover the Enchanting World of Nocturnal Birds on Lantau

HKBWS

Built from acoustic monitoring on Lantau, this story map introduces Hong Kong's night birds in Chinese and English editions.

Chinese edition (opens in a new tab)English edition (opens in a new tab)

Tools

Small tools built for field recording and data review.

Perch footage review

HKBWS Shui Hau project

A review app for the ten perch cameras at Shui Hau. AI suggests the species in each clip; reviewers confirm the record, save stills and short clips, and export approved records to Excel. The overview shows progress for every camera and the days a Brown Fish Owl was seen.

Used by the project team only, so there is no public link.

About Catowl

Catowl is a Hong Kong design studio focused on nature, ecology and conservation. We believe clear, careful pictures help more people get to know the birds around them.

We have worked with

The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society
Ho Koon Nature Education Centre
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The team

Au
- Co-founder
- Illustration
- GIS
- Maps
Cat
Cat
- Co-founder
- Typesetting
- Copywriting

Get in touch

For illustration, print, learning materials or mapping projects, send us an email.

catowl@catowl.design

Illustration, design, mapsfor nature.

From field notesto finished print