The Nightingale: Ukraine's National Animal

I re-learned a VERY IMPORTANT lesson while making this map: pay attention to where you source your data! I've been working with a countries dataset I downloaded from Natural Earth years ago and haven't thought twice about it. Apparently Natural Earth's default countries dataset does NOT recognize the same boundaries as the United States (and many others) do. To get the boundaries recognized by your country's law/convention, be sure to use the correct "Countries Point-of-Views" layer. The map below has since been corrected from my original map to use the United States' recognized boundaries.

Tool: ArcGIS Pro

Data:

• Countries: Natural Earth (BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD THE CORRECT P.O.V. LAYER!!!)

• Nightingale Range: IUCN Red List

Workflow:

Very simple workflow here. Add two copies of the countries layer. Give the top one a definition query for NAME = 'Ukraine'. Sandwiched in between add IUCN Red List range layer for the Nightingale and symbolize based on Unique Values ("LEGEND" field in IUCN Red List data).

The border for Ukraine uses multiple strokes of various thickness and transparencies to give it a glow-like appearance: Top line = 1pt, 0% transparent; Middle stroke = 3pt, 75% transparent; bottom line = 6pt, 90% transparent.

Originally Shared:

Updated Instagram post: