Bird #90 - Blue-footed booby (LC)

Do you ever think about how these animals will never know nor understand how silly they seem to us? Also, boobies are in fact the sister group to the elegant gannets, and they share the same grace and ferocity when diving for fish or in the air. I just think they look so funny when they do big steppies to show off their feet.

Bird #89 - leucistic Bohemian waxwing! (LC)

Largest of the waxwings, these divas are found all throughout the northern hemisphere. The 'wax' tips on their wings are actually just extensions of their flight feathers, coloured by carotenoids from the berries they eat!

I've been fighting some art block but finally managed to make something I actually like :D painting white or black things is so fun

Prints

Bird #88 - Schalow's turaco (LC) Requested by anon

This gorgeous (and strange) bird can be found in some wooded parts of Africa, searching for fruits and bugs. Their eBird page contains the sentence "Acts like a typical turaco, bouncing through the trees". I just think that gives a delightful mental image.

@erysium-idk hope you dont mind but I thought your photo was cool so I used it for a warm-up, and I like this enough to share.

Griffember 10 (#87) - lesser florican (CR) [male]

When it comes to 'shaped' birds, I think bustards are certainly one of the best! This species of bustard does a silly looking display where the male puffs up and hops into the air - youtube link, video also has some information about their conservation status.

This will be my last griffin (for now). I'm sick and have other art stuff I want to get to! @ains-art does have more though ;)

Griffember 9 (#86) - bare-faced go-away-bird (LC)

Go-away-birds are so named because they kind of sound like they're saying 'go away'! Imo other species have a clearer 'go away' call than this one. They are actually a type of turaco! This prompted me to go look at a bunch of turacos and wow there's some neat ones in addition to the classic green turaco.

December griffins with @ains-art

Griffember 8 (#85) - pennant-winged nightjar (LC) [breeding male]

I can't believe there's birds that actualy look like this! Found through sub-Saharan Africa, only males develop these long streamers, and only in the breeding season, so they are probably for display purposes.

Joining in gryphons with @ains-art

Also I couldn't decide between purple or green background:

Griffember day 7 (#84) - black-and-white-casqued hornbill (LC) [rough reference]

Took two days on this because I had to do these birds justice; they're definitely my favourite hornbill and just one of my favourite birds overall. Very dinosaur.

Joining in griffins with @ains-art!

Edit; this is on my inprnt as well now!

Griffember days 5 & 6 - green junglefowl (LC) and horned guan (EN)

These are lower effort for my sanity lol. I drew the pose for the guan and some sort of divine inspiration struck me - also please click the link above to their eBird page and appreciate how ridiculous they look. Griffember by @ains-art (go check them out their art is gorgeous)

Bird #78 - scaly-breasted lorikeet (LC) [grey-green/olive colour morph]

In the wild, these guys are vibrant spring green, but olive and yellow coloured mutations exist in captivity. You may find them in wooded parts of eastern Australia; often they form mixed flocks with rainbow lorikeets!

Been possessed by the art demon recently and made these low effort birds for SquawkOverflow (it's like a bird collecting petsite). These are monarch flycatchers (Monarchidae) who are very rare, and have very few images of them online... Hence the need to draw them so Squawk can have some pictures.

Rufous monarch, Vella Lavella monarch, velvet flycatcher and Ua Pou monarch (possibly extinct)

Bird #77 - barn owl

Once all grouped into Tyto alba, around 2016 it was found some barn owls were more closely related to different species of owl than they were to other barn owls! They've now been split into four species, and the western barn owl got to keep the Tyto alba name. I also can't read Tyto without thinking of Guardians of Ga'hoole.

requested by @birbb6565

prints

Bird #76 - Eurasian hoopoe (LC)

These are one of my favourite birds! I saw one as a child and tiny me didn't realise birds could look like that (I called it a woodpecker at the time lol). They do an adorable little 'hoop hoop hoop' call which I need everyone to see (youtube link).

(It's been a long time since our last bird! this was just a little destressor in the middle of burnout but next week I'll be free!!)

Cute lil' commission :)

Did you know cockatiels can form hybrids with galahs, despite being in different genuses!? I couldn't find much information about them, though they would almost certainly be sterile. (I wonder if they ever occur in the wild..)

A couple australasian bittern dragons/gryphon to warm up :D

Some of you may remember I campaigned for the bittern for NZ's bird of the year last September.... Voting opens in a few days >:)

In other news, I found a really neat weekly newsletter with positive climate and environment news! This week includes massive increase in funding for indigenous peoples in Brazil to protect the environment and a colossal windmill (300m diameter!) that can power 55k homes. I'm not like sponsored or anything, it just makes me happy when I read it and they deserve more support! At least check it out pls :)