對於寺廟彩繪，李乾朗指出：「寺廟中的裝飾除了雕刻外，還有各式各樣的色彩及圖案，令人眼花撩亂，這就是傳統寺廟發展悠久的『彩繪』藝術。除了門神彩繪以外，主要的表現重點在樑柱與壁堵二處。」其中有佛道傳說人物、歷史人物與山水花鳥等，研究者多著墨於人物而忽略花鳥主題。本文即以花鳥彩繪為主，對於臺北、新北、桃園、臺南、新竹、雲林、嘉義、臺東等處的大小寺廟二十餘座，花了七年時間作一田野考察，搜集了數萬個寺廟圖檔，針對其中的花鳥構圖，作一梳理。首先尋析出寺廟花鳥彩繪的樣式與發展，接著對彩繪的題辭作一整理，由兩字到四字題辭乃至題畫詩文等，以期描繪出花鳥彩繪題字的輪廓，作為許多未題字花鳥彩繪的參考，並滙整出吉祥與宗教寓意之外的構圖。本文還對未題字花鳥彩繪的解讀方式，提出看法，除了可以參考寺廟花鳥雕刻題字，還可以參照歷代花鳥畫譜及花鳥題畫詩等相關構圖與題詞，補足與擴充寺廟花鳥彩繪原有的內容，並指出寺廟建築中的某些花鳥彩繪的某些值得商榷之處，包括錯置的題辭，以及錯別字的出現等。筆者希望藉由本論文對寺廟花鳥彩繪作一研究與整理，能夠填補寺廟研究當中，獨缺花鳥彩繪這塊研究的缺角，以提供教學與研究之運用。

The focus of this research is on the bird-and-flower paintings, which are among the significant murals in a good number of temples over all Taiwan, since most scholarship on Taiwan temple paintings has explored fruitfully about the symbolic meanings of the figures on these pieces without paying adequate attention to the theme of birds and flowers. For seven years, I have conducted the extensive field research on Taiwan temples such as the Lungshan Temple at Lukang, Tienhou Temple at Lukang, the Lungshan Temple in Taipei, and the Chaotien Temple at Peikang and accumulated tens of thousands of related images in order to sort out their common designs and patterns. This paper is an attempt to seek out the formation and development of the bird-and-flower paintings, to dwell upon the components of the inscriptions and/or picture poems, to map out the candidates of avian and botanical species as showcased on these images, and to reflect on allegorical connotations of these vibrant representations. Furthermore, this paper casts a special light on those paintings without engraved captions or with corrupted inscriptions, especially via a careful comparison with the archive of bird-and-flower paintings and inscriptions so as to mend certain corruptions and inadequacies in some temple mural paintings. All in all, the research results are of practical benefit not only to the maintenance and rehabilitation of Taiwan historic sites but also to the promotion of cultural heritage and the multiple educational purposes.