HOME | DD

Description
3.5 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch of what is now the Playa Los Lobos Allo Formation in Argentina, a male Llallawavis scagliai, an extinct phorusrhacid bird, has successfully gained the attention of a female of his species during the mating season. The pair engages in a kind of courtship dance, facing each other while shaking their heads and bouncing about in near-perfect synchrony. Several minutes of this later the female decides the male is a suitable partner and soon mate, and will later construct a nest for her to lay their eggs.

Because it is Valentines Day and it felt fitting to draw this. I actually had the idea to draw a courtship dance of phorusrhacids for around 6 months but it felt most fitting to post that today.

Llallawavis scagliai is a flightless bird of the extinct family Phorusrhacidae, commonly known as the terror birds because they were predatory and large members of this group could probably prey on people if they coexisted. While some members were huge like Kelenken and the fittingly-named Titanis, Llallawavis only stood 1.2 meters tall and was a smaller species that probably fed on smaller prey like large rodents which it hunted on the pampas savannah. In fact the only known fossil of this species, found in 2010 and described in 2015, is the most complete skeleton of a terror bird known and there has even been a study conducted on its hearing abilities which suggests it probably had hearing below the average for extant birds, so most likely had a deep voice to match. Foot bones of terror birds are not well known and they are usually portrayed with normal bird feet, but some people (me included) like to portray them with a retractable claw like a dromaeosaur (raptor) dinosaur since their closest living relative, a bird called the seriema, has that too.

It seems that the vast majority of terror bird artworks show them either standing in profile doing nothing or in murder mode and killing something, so I decided to do something different. Considering how many extant birds have elaborate courtship rituals that often include a mating dance, I thought it may be possible that terror birds had these too. Even predatory birds like eagles and large ground birds such as ostriches have courtship dances of some kind so it seems plausible that these eagle-headed ostriches did the same. Here the dance shown is inspired by that of various cranes, albatrosses and great crested grebes. I also decided to go for some sexual dimorphism, with the male on the left having slightly brighter colors (like the golden neck and red beak) as well as longer and more patterned tail feathers to attract mates (also terror birds are always shown with short tail feathers so I spiced things up there as well). The colors of both the male and female are sort if based of the kestrel, caracara and some imagination.

Also there was something about drawing this with a sunset that felt right. I tried various levels of shading but this seemed most fitting to both me and my sister. Was also a bit inspired by the wonderfully-made artwork of a pair of Guanlong in a courtship display by Julius T. Csotonyi (look it up and you will find it).

The reason for choosing Llallawavis of all terror birds was for the pun in the title. I haven't even seen that movie yet.

Description
3.5 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch of what is now the Playa Los Lobos Allo Formation in Argentina, a male Llallawavis scagliai, an extinct phorusrhacid bird, has successfully gained the attention of a female of his species during the mating season. The pair engages in a kind of courtship dance, facing each other while shaking their heads and bouncing about in near-perfect synchrony. Several minutes of this later the female decides the male is a suitable partner and soon mate, and will later construct a nest for her to lay their eggs.

Because it is Valentines Day and it felt fitting to draw this. I actually had the idea to draw a courtship dance of phorusrhacids for around 6 months but it felt most fitting to post that today.

Llallawavis scagliai is a flightless bird of the extinct family Phorusrhacidae, commonly known as the terror birds because they were predatory and large members of this group could probably prey on people if they coexisted. While some members were huge like Kelenken and the fittingly-named Titanis, Llallawavis only stood 1.2 meters tall and was a smaller species that probably fed on smaller prey like large rodents which it hunted on the pampas savannah. In fact the only known fossil of this species, found in 2010 and described in 2015, is the most complete skeleton of a terror bird known and there has even been a study conducted on its hearing abilities which suggests it probably had hearing below the average for extant birds, so most likely had a deep voice to match. Foot bones of terror birds are not well known and they are usually portrayed with normal bird feet, but some people (me included) like to portray them with a retractable claw like a dromaeosaur (raptor) dinosaur since their closest living relative, a bird called the seriema, has that too.

It seems that the vast majority of terror bird artworks show them either standing in profile doing nothing or in murder mode and killing something, so I decided to do something different. Considering how many extant birds have elaborate courtship rituals that often include a mating dance, I thought it may be possible that terror birds had these too. Even predatory birds like eagles and large ground birds such as ostriches have courtship dances of some kind so it seems plausible that these eagle-headed ostriches did the same. Here the dance shown is inspired by that of various cranes, albatrosses and great crested grebes. I also decided to go for some sexual dimorphism, with the male on the left having slightly brighter colors (like the golden neck and red beak) as well as longer and more patterned tail feathers to attract mates (also terror birds are always shown with short tail feathers so I spiced things up there as well). The colors of both the male and female are sort if based of the kestrel, caracara and some imagination.

Also there was something about drawing this with a sunset that felt right. I tried various levels of shading but this seemed most fitting to both me and my sister. Was also a bit inspired by the wonderfully-made artwork of a pair of Guanlong in a courtship display by Julius T. Csotonyi (look it up and you will find it).

The reason for choosing Llallawavis of all terror birds was for the pun in the title. I haven't even seen that movie yet.