Visitors to Taronga Zoo over the next month are likely to be confronted by an unusual exhibition as they meander between enclosures.

Giant images of 10 birds, some of them endangered, will be scattered at key points around the zoo as part of an inaugural QBE Muse exhibition aimed at highlighting the beautiful intricacy of a species that is too often missed in the zoo and in the wild.

Taronga Zoo bird keeper Brendan Host holds Griffin the sooty owl with an image of the bird taken by photographic artist Leila Jefferys. Credit:Kate Geraghty

"Because of the small scale of birdlife, people often don't realise how amazing it actually is," Leila Jefferys, the photographic artist who took the images, says. "They don't get up close and personal."

Ms Jeffreys' hope is that, by separating birds from their habitat, visitors will be able to focus on "their expression, their character" depicted in the human-size portraits.