The Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is found in the temperate zones of the Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia at elevations of about 2500 to 3600 m. It has the longest bill in relation to its body size of any bird in the world. I’ve only shown about a third of its bill in this sketch.
Reference photo by Vivek
Continuing the theme of avians with ridiculously outsized body parts, today I bring you the peacock, Pavo cristatus.
According to Wikipedia, “The function of the peacock’s elaborate train has been debated for over a century. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin found it a puzzle, hard to explain through ordinary natural selection. His later explanation, sexual selection, is widely but not universally accepted. In the 20th century, Amotz Zahavi argued that the train was a handicap, and that males were honestly signalling their fitness in proportion to the splendour of their trains. Despite extensive study, opinions remain divided on the mechanisms involved.”
Sketching toucans with John Muir Laws. I always knew toucans had very oversized beaks, but look at that skeleton image! It’s nuts!
To my delight, a house finch couple has spent the last few days building a nest in the cypress tree outside our kitchen window. We can’t see the nest — it’s tucked into the tree’s interior — but it’ll be fun to see the birds come and go as they breed and feed.
It’s always a pleasure (and an education) to take a class with John Muir Laws.
Red-winged Blackbirds are apparently “one of the most abundant birds across North America” but Saturday was the first time I’ve observed any. They hang out in wet places, and we don’t have very many of them around here! The males are so handsome and showy, with their bright orange epaulettes which they puff up as they call.
Sketched from a photo by Ashok Khosla.
These guys are so dapper.
We have both Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks here. Today I realised there’s an easy way to tell the difference, even if you can’t see the colouration. In flight, the Red-shouldered alternates a few rapid flaps with glides. In contrast, the Red-tailed’s wingbeats are deep and slow, with the wingtips often curled up.
Well, spring has sprung and the birds are letting us know about it! Yesterday at Wildwood, the Bewick’s wrens were going off! I’m grateful for tools like BirdNET for helping me improve by bird ID skills, especially as we have so many LBJs (little brown jobs) around here. (Ref đź“·: Ashok Khosla)
I’m thinking someone’s been feeding the birds at Legacy Park, because these two Canada Geese waddled right on over to check me out. When it was clear I had nothing edible to offer, they lost interest and toddled off.
hashiworks 