Growing up in Wellington, New Zealand, Ray Harris-Ching knew that his life would involve art. Such was his persistence, that Harris-Ching dropped out of high school in order to pursue an apprenticeship in advertising. Though he eventually earned the role as art director, Harris-Ching felt unfulfilled. Remembering a school trip to a museum he took as a child, where he saw a stunning display of stuffed hummingbirds, Harris-Ching decided to turn to painting birds. In the 1960s, Harris-Ching began exhibiting his paintings of birds, and he even sold out his first show “Thirty Birds” at a gallery in Aukland, New Zealand.

His talent was immediately recognized by prominent ornithologists who wished to commission his work. In the late 1960s, after moving to London, Harris-Ching worked on the exhausting project of illustrating The Reader’s Digest Book of British Birds in less than a year. This book became the world’s most successful and biggest selling bird book.