Happy Draw a Bird Day! To celebrate, I present, my first tyrant flycatcher drawing! The Cuban Pewee, or Crescent-eyed Pewee, Contopus caribaeus, resides in Cuba and The Bahamas, and is occasionally sighted on the southeast coast of Florida. Keith Salvesen recently posted some lovely photos on his blog Rolling Harbour Abaco and he was cool with me using them for a Cuban Pewee drawing adventure. … Continue reading The Tyrant
I drew these Black-throated tits, a.k.a. Black-throated bushtits, a.k.a. Aegithalos concinnus, a.k.a. Mésange à tête rousse, from a photo on Pinterest because they are cute, strikingly patterned and resemble chickadees. I couldn’t find any information on the photographer. The last drawing I posted was of a Black-capped chickadee and drawing it reminded me of a more colourful but similarly shaped and patterned bird that I … Continue reading Tits, bushtits and penduline tits
Happy Draw-a-Bird-Day!!! I photographed this Black-capped Chickadee on December 8th, 2018, in Mill Creek Ravine Park. My first attempt at drawing this little fella looked pretty good up close, but when I took a step back, he kind of looked off balance, like he was going to fall backwards off his perch. Poop! Sigh. Luckily, a December post by Jean Mackay gave me a … Continue reading Chick-a-dee-dee-dee
Flying in a bit late for Draw-a-Bird-Day, this immature or female Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) was eating tiny crabapples in Mill Creek Ravine Park, in late November 2017. Pine Grosbeaks bite through the skin of crabapples, eat the seeds and discard the pulp. They do the same with mountain ash berries. Realistically, the feathers of immature and female birds are grey and orange, but I … Continue reading Winter bird
Happy Draw-A-Bird-Day! I didn’t plan on spending 12 hours with this raven but I did. I mostly used a mechanical pencil with a fat HB lead. The fat lead can be sharpened with the little steel head of the pencil but I found it easier to use my 3-sided pencil sharpener on the side with the half-length blade. Even right after sharpening, the tip of … Continue reading The raven
Happy Draw-A-Bird-Day!!! Last fall I saw four species of warblers migrate through the Strathcona Rail Community Garden – Palm (drawing), Tennessee, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped. Fall warblers also refuel in the forests along the creek and river near my home, but the garden is the easiest place to photograph the birds. There are no tall trees to cast shade on waist-high plants and there are lots … Continue reading DABD November 2018
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving and Happy Draw-A-Bird-Day! A few Magnolia Warblers made a stopover in Mill Creek Ravine Park (Edmonton, Alberta) on their way to winter homes closer to the equator. I photographed this bird on August 30th. Continue reading Magnolia Warbler
Happy day after Draw a Bird Day! Flocks and flocks of Bohemian Waxwings visited Edmonton this winter and I took many, many photos of them feasting on berries and flying in and out of trees and bushes. A few photos turned out well, with interesting poses and enough detail to be drawing-worthy. I was super excited to do some quick, fun sketches, but I soon … Continue reading Draw a Bird Day – Going Eraser-less!
It has been a while since I participated in Draw a Bird Day. I was happy to see some bird drawings in my blog reader this morning and decided to get inspired. I’ve been mostly sketching lately and none of the results have looked quite showable. But I did have a partially coloured drawing of some bird wings. And now, it’s fully coloured! When I … Continue reading Wing Feathers – Draw a Bird Day
Happy DADABD (Day After Draw a Bird Day)! Thanks to Ron Dudley of Feathered Photography for letting me use his image of a Black-billed Magpie attacking a Swainson’s Hawk as a reference. I love the flight position! I used other photos to help me whimsically assign colours to the feathers. Black-billed Magpies are the birds I see the most in my Edmonton neighbourhood these days, … Continue reading Draw a Bird Day – Magpie in Flight
Happy Draw-A-Bird-Day! Last month, I had fun with a few pencil sketches of birds and other animals. Using a classic yellow HB pencil with pink eraser reduced my “expectation anxiety”. I did, however, use 4 different erasers to create this sketch. The pink one and the classic white Staedtler wrapped in blue and the essential kneaded eraser (because I can mold it into any shape … Continue reading Draw a bird day – hawk!
Happy Draw-A-Bird-Day! Thanks to Tony LePrieur for permission to use his photo of a male Audubon subspecies Yellow-rumped Warbler as a reference. The photo was published in a Birds Calgary blog post titled Birds of Bridlewood and Carburn Park. As Bob Lefebvre noted, the other subspecies, Myrtle, is more commonly seen in Calgary. I saw many in juvenile plumage but only two adult males in … Continue reading Draw A Bird Day – Yellow-Rumped Warbler
