Birds of a Feather is an art-forward PFP collection of 500 Bitcoin inscriptions created by The Pandemonium, with art by the pseudonymous TheArtistBTC. The Pandemonium group is headed up by Brett Herskope, along with engineers Neal Blackburn and Albert Catama. Birds of a Feather launched in October 2023 and is made up of – for lack of a better word – birds. Specifically, monochrome parrots that feature vintage pop culture references and a healthy dose of street-style.
In an Ordinals sea of 10K collections, the Birds are rarer to get your hands on. Only 500 Birds live on Bitcoin – and only 500 ever will. Given some holders have more than one, it’s a tight-knit group. But don’t let the relatively small collection size fool you; the Birds of a Feather community is an active one. Enthusiasts can often be spotted on social media with stylized posts based on the collection name, or simply with the more straightforward “Squawk.” So what makes these birds of a feather flock together? The answer lies in the details.
History of Birds of a Feather and Associated Projects
First of all, the names of this collection’s creators might have looked familiar to you. That would be fair, because the Pandemonium group is composed of veteran Bitcoin builders, each of whom has other recognizable projects to their name. Project Lead Brett Herskope, for example, is affiliated with the NFT marketplace and web3 platform Gamma. The approach to building Birds of a Feather – and its related projects – reflects their experience and ethos. Unlike many other collections, there’s nothing speculative (or influencer-based) about the Birds.
That’s because these black-and-white birds aren’t really a standalone project. Rather, they’re part of the broader umbrella of The Pandemonium, which is also responsible for Parrot Radio, the OrdiGallery and multiple other projects. According to the creators, Parrot Radio is “a web3 native mobile music app for all your audio and audiovisual NFTs,” and OrdiGallery is an immersive Bitcoin art gallery. Each ordinal you hold unlocks a premium OrdiGallery, which they had already launched a version of before the collection itself dropped. Including gallery access in PFP ownership provides a utility beyond the art itself and is an unusual perk for those in the Bird community – especially when you consider that it was available pre-mint.
Another striking thing to note about the Birds builders is how eager they are to spotlight and credit other creators and other collections. While many inscription projects have dedicated social media followings that post actively about the collection, Pandemonium also makes time to regularly hype up others. A quick scroll through their Twitter/X page is all it takes to see individualized shout-outs to their holders, other collections, other creators, and other artists. The decision to acknowledge and drive awareness to others’ work isn’t unique to Pandemonium, but the volume at which they do it is notable.
Concept of Birds of a Feather
The BoaF art is striking to look at. Each of the inscriptions contains a monochrome parrot set against a grayscale or black backdrop and decked out in various clothing. But if you want to really understand the artwork, the devil is in the details. Many of the collection visuals are full of subtle, yet recognizable pop culture references – from Steamboat Willie (the original inspiration for the set) to Kurt Cobain. A combination of vintage Disney and The Artist’s signature street-culture style is heavily woven throughout the project.
It’s not just pop culture, either. There are also plenty of crypto-culture references, like a pizza-chomping parrot that references the famous Laszlo Hanyecz-Papa John’s transaction (the first documented good purchased with Bitcoin). There’s even a reference to Leather, with a parrot bearing a leather jacket as a dedication for participating in the Birds of a Feather minting process.
Birds of a Feather Development
One of the things the Birds builders emphasize is that this collection was designed “intentionally for artists and collectors.” They pride themselves on the fact that they had already built and delivered the Ordi Gallery before the Birds of a Feather mint, meaning that each holder’s Bird was a key to unlock an existing gallery as soon as they acquired it. As Herskope wrote, this means that holders are not buying based on speculation about what might get delivered later.
At one point, there was meant to be double the number of Birds than there actually ended up being. The collection was designed as a 25 kb file size back when fees would’ve been low. Because of fee hikes, that price rocketed up. The creators’ interest in protecting the holders and keeping costs fair led them to chop it down to 500.
But because they minted at 0.001 BTC when the price was around $40,000 USD, BoaF was essentially a $40 mint without any access-gatekeeping. This price point is particularly generous when you consider that the Pandemonium team did all this with “0 funding.” They also made it easy to mint, using their own website with Gamma’s API and integrating numerous BTC wallets. By building such a user-friendly, cost-effective collection, they increased opportunities for access and participation for all.
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