Pretty jewel-colored little bird.
When trying to correct the scanner color input, I may have over-darkened it. The background should be white, not grey. But the scanner was fighting me on every effort. It kept stalling and crashing, and telling me that it was already working on something else when I wasn’t touching it… I swear, do scanners get PMS? Or maybe it’s haunted? Do scanners get haunted? Either way, I gave up.
His whole head looks like a brilliantly painted sword, jabbing out into the space of the page. And he looks pissed, to boot.
Now that is quite a bill! This is the only bird whose bill is longer than the rest of his body. Pinocchio’s got nothin’ on this fella.
I had fun doing the feathers around the eye area.
I like cranes for many of the same reasons I enjoy Egrets and Herons – the same basic shape, grace of movement, and drama of feathers. However, the crane is indigenous to Eurasia, not the Americas. So I don’t have the same personal experience. I know them only from images and stories.
This bird is a clever bastard. He is standing in water, making a perfect circle with his wings over the water. If he stands absolutely still, a dumb fish will come right under his beak looking for shelter. This poor fish will think he has found the shade from a nice tree or bush growing out of the water – and not a clever hungry bird looking for dinner.
It’s both a beautiful sight, and a brilliant hunting strategy.
If you love odd looking birds, then the great frigate is your man. The male frigate has a giant red puffy sack on his throat, which he inflates during mating season like a balloon. Actually, a male will inflate the “gular sac” and shake his head vigorously from side to side, attracting the attention of lady birds flying by. Which, in bird speak, is almost the equivalent of a floppy air-man used at car dealerships – doing a crazy air-fueled dance to stop traffic – only to sell himself as a mate and not to sell used cars.
In any case, a truly weirdly wonderful bird.
Fun shiny-headed bird. Eats army ants, which is pretty brave if you ask me,
These birds have crazy huge feet. They live in ponds and walk around on waterlilies. They have these massive toes to evenly distribute their weight so they won’t sink. It’s so clever. And also, they have a crazy beak wattle blob thing, which is always fun to draw.
claire meyler 