Sedge Warblers remind me of Dawn Chorus day, when I often visit a local nature reserve in the outskirts of the city. The heavy sky of dawn, these feisty migrants just arrived, perched on prominent positions, delivering their screechy, mimetic, loud and angry phrases, bursting into the air for a final flourish of flight song. Their throats are a vivid orange red, like little flames, I think they should be called Firethroats, but there is already another bird call that!
Spoonbills are one of my favourite birds to watch. Their ungainly bills and hunched pose, their unique feeding method, bill slightly open, swishing in shallow water left and right, left and right, moving with long strides, until their sensitive bill makes contact with prey, when they snap it shut, then swallow. They might look positively goofy, but Eurasian Spoonbills are stunning birds. In breeding plumage they grow a large tuft of plumes at the back of their heads and an orange wash on their chest to complement their bill tip. I drew the Spoonbill portrait on my Wacom tablet on ArtRage software, using watercolours, ink pens and pencils.
Bird Sketches 