Christmas Ideas and a New Painting

I developed this watercolour after taking some photos of this immature Australian King-parrot on the front veranda, the patchy red of the head shows that this is a young male, with time the green feathers of its head will change to a bright red. Below is the first sketch I drew on my sketchbook with some colour studies to find the right mixes and colour harmonies.

Immature Australian King-parrot, watercolour on paper, 16.5 x 23.5 cm, © Matteo Grilli 2014

Christmas is getting closer, it's never too early to order a unique and original gift from my online store, with more than 140 items to choose from and an array of original works (worldwide free shipping), greeting cards, bookmarks, reproductions, a children's book, and more, there is something for any taste and budget. If you are overseas or your order is going to be sent outside of Australia, make sure to order before December 4th to allow enough time for your gift to be processed and delivered. If your gift stays in Australia, you should order by December 18th.

And, if one artwork is not enough, why not ordering a copy of my book 'Watercolour Explorations on Australian Wildlife' containing a large collection of artworks completed between 2010 and 2013?

Until next time,

MG

Little Corella on Jacaranda

Little Corella on Jacaranda, watercolour on paper, 30 x 37 cm, © Matteo Grilli

Meeting the Peewee

The Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca) is a very common suburban bird in Brisbane, it is often seen searching for food walking frantically across lawns, in pairs most of the times, if one is around usually the other is not far. I had the chance to study a breeding pair for a while and I was able to notice some very interesting things.

Male and female pair for life, different sexes have different colour patterns, females (above) have white forehead and throat, while males (below) have white eyebrows, black forehead and throat. Jouveniles have a mixed pattern with white throat and large white eyebrows, dark eyes and beak, audults have very light eyes and beak.

Both parents are very protective and won't hesitate to attack much larger birds which may be a threat for the nest such as crows. The nest is built with mud, grass and leaves. Male and female exchange nest duties approximately every 15 minutes, they both search for food so the babies can enjoy a constant food supply.

As the day gets hotter the parent stops sitting on the baby birds and stands over them with wings half open to provide shade to the nestlings.

Magpie-larks, also known as Peewees, are known to sing in duet to defend their territory. Each partner produces about one note a second but a half-second apart, so to the human ear it sounds coming from the same bird.

This beautiful bird has a very charming black and white plumage, which seems to be rather in fashion for Australian birds, their flying style reminds me of that of some bigger species of butterflies.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the Magpie-lark, until next time,

Matteo

Kookaburra Couple

Greeting Cards available

I was captured by the unassuming colours of this bird contrasting so greatly with their strong personality. The explosive 'laughter' of the Laughing Kookaburras Dacelo novaeguineae, can be heard mostly before the sunrise, when it's still dark and after the sunset, just before complete darkness. It is a territorial signal. According to the Aboriginal belief, the Kookaburra's laughter every morning is a signal to the sky people to light the great fire that illuminates and warms the earth. The name 'kookaburra' apparently comes from an Aboriginal language that is now extint, the Wiradhuri from New South Wales.

Males and females are almost identical, I've been told males have blue feathers on the rump or upper-tail covert feathers. They can be very friendly especially when people feed them, but I red on the magazine called Australian Wildlife Secrets that it is not recommended to feed meat to wild birds as meat for human consumption is too rich in fat and protein for wildlife.

They hunt from the branches or from a favourite perch from which they observe the surroundings until a prey moves close. I once saw a male offering a small snake to the female, but she was not interested... According to the scientific classification, the Kookaburra belongs to the family of the King Fishers Halcyonidae but instead of living by the water, they evolved to be able to live in the drier conditions of the the bush and woodlands of Australia. 

Short update from my shop: international free postage now available for all Original Artworks

Until next time

All the best

M

Garden Visitors - the Rainbow Lorikeets

A flock of Rainbow Lorikeets darting and calling each other in the sky. You can't get more Australian than this. I was noticing how nature manages to get some kind of balance, for instance, such a colorful and flamboyant bird is often appreciated for its look but certainly not for its calls, rather harsh and unpleasant for us, even though they sometimes produce some kind of mellow sounding whistles. If we think of all the avian species famous for their songs, they seem to never show a bright colorful plumage, they are in fact rather dull or humble in terms of colours. Feel free to bring some examples if you know otherwise!

As all other parrots they seem to tie very close bonds within the members of a couple.

And yet their colours are not just pretty, they end up being very useful to communicate within the flock and to deceive predators. Predators looking from the sky would find it hard to focus on a single bird looking just as the tree canopy on which it feeds, while other members of the flock will never loose eye contact with one another, thus helping each other as all flock birds do.

Shop update: the opening of my online shop has been delayed for a little bit longer, I was probably too optimistic, I just want to make sure everything is just right, this week I'm going to see some print samples and hopefully by the end of this week or the next at the longest I'll be ready for the opening. Exciting times!

All the best

M

Garden Visitors - the Pied Currawong

The Latin name of this bird, Strepera graculina, means 'noisy jackdaw', and the common name Currawong is Aboriginal and is derived from the very musical and loud calls produced by it. Currawongs are the curious and inquisitive 'pirates' of the bush, harassing other species and members of their own group as well, but nature is rather even and the Pied Currawong is the favourite target for the Channel-billed Cuckoo, who, as other cuckoo species parasites other birds' nests.

The Artamidae family, which includes Butcherbirds, Magpies and Currawongs is rather talented, all members are in fact able to produce pleasing if not very nice and elaborate sounds. The Currawong's call is a loud, flute-like sound that echoes far and is a very typical sound of the bush.

Original paintings ready to be packed and delivered.

Business Cards!

Suburban Owls

I was invited for lunch at some friends' place in a northern Brisbane suburb and there I was surprised once again to see how wildlife is living just on the door-step of people's homes. Many times flamboyant, colourful, noisy and extravagant, other times quiet, secretive and unassuming. The Southern Boobook Owl, Ninox novaeseelandiae, was roosting sheltered on a lower palm leaf, scarcely about two meters from the ground, just on the side of the entrance driveway, silently sleeping and watching at times the comings and goings of both resident people and cars.

He or she didn't appear to be shy or scared, but allowed people to watch him from a very close distance, slowly closing and opening one eye-lid while keeping the other open and vigilant. Once again I found the owl's facial expressions very interesting and charming, softly moving and changing. Boobook Owls are very widespread all over Australia and their night call, a loud and repeated 'book-book' is perhaps one of the best known nocturnal sounds, you can hear a couple of samples here.

Good luck on you Mr. Hoot!

Work in progress

Shop coming soon...

Garden Visitors: Dainty Swallowtail, Papilio anactus above and Orchard Swallowtail, Papilio aegeus, the latter shows the difference between the male pattern on the left and the female on the right.

I am very glad to inform all the faithful readers and followers that I am working to produce high quality prints of my artwork to sell. I would like to thank all the people who have already contacted me asking for details about their favourite artworks, for their patience and awesome support.

I'd love to keep hearing from you, so if you have any enquiry, even just to let me know about your favourite artwork and your country, please don't hesitate to contact me via email, FaceBook, comments following the posts and subscribe to the newsletter, so that I can keep working on putting things together.

Every artwork on this blog can become a print for you to take home.

Watch this space!

MG

The Caterpillar of an Orchard Swallowtail is a noisy chewer, on the early stages the larva resembles a bird dropping, it later changes into a camouflaged green. Who could ever tell that from a bird-dropping-looking tiny creature an amazing butterfly will later develop?

Garden Visitors - the Crested Pigeon

 

Journal #8, page 4, Crested Pigeon, Ocyphaps lophotes

The whole eye appears to be bigger than it really is, thanks to a patch of bare red skin. This gives the bird a cartoon-like look and a range of interesting expressions.

Tertial left wing feather.

Garden Visitors - the Blue-faced Honeyeater

Journal #8, page 3

The colour of the bare skin around the eyes of the adults is a rich and intense mix of shades of blue, a colour that reminds of all the different shades of the colours of the sea on a bright summer day. Beak and tongue are adapted to eat  nectar, pollen, berries and insects.

Juveniles have different colours, starting from an olive-green brown at an early age, the skin then becomes blue in a matter of weeks.

Entomyzon cyanotis in Australia

Queen of the Backyard

A female Australian Brush-turkey on a backyard's fence.

Stupid, ugly and invasive. These are the most common terms used to refer to this big, ground bird whose secret life has something truly remarkable. The male builds a nest, a mound that can be up to 4 meters across and 2m high, he gathers the material scratching ground litter and other organic matter with his large and powerful feet. Right in the middle of the mound, one or more females lay their eggs and leave them to the care of the father who will cover them with decomposing organic material to keep them warm. Checking the temperature of the nest with his beak, the male will scratch off some litter to cool it down or add some more to keep it warm and will also defend the area with great bravery from predators such as goannas and snakes. 

 

The sex of the young depends on the temperature, just like crocodiles. After hatching, the chick finds his way up to the surface, and leave the nest on its own, completely able to provide for itself with no help from the parents, it is already able to fly and will roost on trees for the night just like the adults. Yes, they are destructive, whether they decide to build a nest or not in someone's backyard, when they scratch the ground for food they can destroy everything, seedlings, small plants, vegetables, and they dig out even sweet potatoes to eat the tuber. But they definitely thrive in many suburban or inhabited areas.

 They showed to be able to adapt to the invasion of humans a couple of hundred years ago and to take the best advantage out of the new situation. For some, they're probably not as beautiful or regal as peacocks, but they certainly reveal a successful story of adaptability towards the change brought by the Europeans. The Australian Brush-turkey - Alectura lathami - .

An amazing insight book about the way Australian birds had to adapt to the harsh Australian environment, to the first human immigrations of the Aborigines and to the latest of the Europeans is Boom and Bust: http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Multimedia/CSIROpod/Book-and-Bust-book.aspx 

Highly recommended.

Garden Visitors - the Noisy Miner

Although this common bird does not have a colourful plumage or a striking beauty, it makes itself noticed by its sounds, high-pitched and harsh whistles which become overwhelming when a whole family is performing together. They are very gregarious birds and almost always seen in flocks, mobbing all other species, they are very determined to chase as far away as possible even the peaceful Crested Pigeons and they chase, mob and fight even the other members of their own species as well.

The Noisy Miner - Manorina melanocephala, is the sentinel of the bush, warning with their loud alarm calls all the members of their flock and other birds about pretty much everything that's going on in the area no matter if it is just a walking person or a snake, in the second case this behaviour could even save their lives. Their way of bathing is rather funny, in fact they fly or jump over the water and plunge noisily into it, flying away soon after plunging splashing water all around, perching nearby and removing excess water with those very fast movement of the wings that all birds do when bathing.

It is probably the most common bird in the Brisbane area and this is due to their aggressiveness which has lead many small species to drastically reduce their populations. Noisy Miners mostly feed on nectar and insects and they benefited from some widespread gardening practices where some plant species are chosen for suburban gardens. They also thrive in cities' suburbs because of their high adaptability regarding feeding, accepting food scraps and leftovers given more or less willingly by humans. All these reasons determined their population to boom in urbanized areas and the decrease of number of smaller species that previously inhabited those territories. 

Garden Visitors - the Pied Butcherbird

Every morning at dawn, in that time frame when all birds sing the most, in spring, I could hear this strange flute-like call from the Pied Butcherbird -Cracticus nigrogularis- the tune was perfect in pitch and time and slightly varied at times. It sounded very 'human' in the sense that I thought it was somebody whistling. I recorded it and transcribed it:

This bird may be considered the singer of the bush, with its huge repertoire of calls and songs of its own but also borrowed from other sources. For some reason they are aware that when a human is gardening there might be insects and worms around, so they come and perch very closely to the working gardener and carefully observe the surroundings until an insect runs away from the digging and pruning. The hunter then quickly flies down and grabs its meal.

Their calls and songs are made up of a wide range of mellow, sweet, mysterious and sad whistles and it is one of the most characteristic sound of the bush and suburban gardens. The pair living around our garden regularly comes for drinking and bathing in the bird bath just in front of my studio window. To watch and listen to them is a big pleasure. Once, just during one of its visit, it flew straight from the bird bath to the wall of the building behind it, flying away in less than a second with a gecko in its beak. Very skilled hunter, no wonder we now have a big curious young discovering the world after its parents.