The painting made in acrylic paint shows the Dodo, a flightless bird, frozen in mid air, thus referring to it's seemingly inevitable extinction. The egg, held up very carefully by the bird, symbolizes the struggle for survival (and the revival attempts by humans). Remains of the egg are considered to be the holy grail in Dodo research, and have, until now, never been found.
Deleo studied and did quite some research to determine how the bird, that went extinct more than 300 years ago, must have looked like. Few contemporary paintings and drawings of the animal survived. Most of the artists, just like Deleo, had never seen a living species. This version also blends fact and fiction. A skull kept by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History was closely examined by Deleo. Just like a painting (1625) by the Mughal artist Ustad Mansur and the drawings made by Joris Carolus during the voyage of the VOC Gelderland in 1602, among many other resources.