Across the forgotten walls of a Hong Kong island, a flock of bird murals rises

They perch gently on concrete ledges. They nestle into peeling stucco. Occasionally, they soar across a stone house's rooftop. A flock has landed in Wang Tong Village, a peaceful corner of Lantau Island on Hong Kong’s southwestern edge. But this flock is unlike others: Its birds are made of paint. They exist on murals designed for a larger purpose — not merely to draw attention to forgotten places but to tell the story of the extraordinary journeys birds undertake. Dominic Johnson-Hill, who envisioned the flock, was captivated by an account from his ornithologist neighbor about the Amur falcon, a bird that travels from Manchuria, pauses in Lantau, then continues its migration across Myanmar, India and Madagascar to South Africa. “I just assumed these birds lived on the island,” Johnson-Hill recalls. “But they’re not. They’re passing guests.” That sense of wonder became the seed for what became the Flock Project. Johnson-Hill looked at the abandoned house next to his own and...