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RiverRaven — Alpine acrobat
#bird #kea #nestor #vulnerable #redlist
Published: 2015-10-12 20:57:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 1855; Favourites: 104; Downloads: 0
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Description
The green little vandals of the snowy mountains in New Zealand! Kea are known for their curiosity and destructive behaviour. The kea is the only parrot species that lives in an alpine climate and one of the few to eat animal material (small birds, rabbit and sheep fat). Definitely the most intriguing parrot species for me
I laughed out loud when I read this: "A gathering or group of kea is called a circus." (Wikipedia)
That inspired the title, because one kea is surely called an acrobat then?
Phew, doing backgrounds is a new thing for me, and mountains are not easy to pull off! But I am really pleased with the kea. As always, the feathers were a struggle, and as always, I had fun trying new brush settings and learning in the process..
Critique is welcome, but please be kind!
And, yes, this is my avatar now as well ^^
Kea (Nestor notabilis)
IUCN status: Endangered
For more information about the species, see Wikipedia and the IUCN Red List .
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Comments: 54
Must have been an amazing sight. I only ever saw them in zoos, never in the wild (never been there). I'd love to go there once and see the landscapes as well as these impressive birds, but it is almost literally on the other side of the Earth xD
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Well, it was in a nature preserve, so not totally in the wild. BUT it wasn't confined to a cage. And it wasn't living in a fake habitat. It was actually on my way back from even more out of the way... Antarctica.
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Well, a nature preserve still allows them a lot of space and the freedom to do as they like. Where was it?
You visited Antarctica? Yeah that's even more remote... Irrespective of where you live x)
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Yep
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That kea has such a regal posture.. :')
Oh nice, you were doing fieldwork in Antarctica for your study, but you live in the US? Sounds like an adventure!
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Yes it was. Probably the greatest adventure I've ever gone on.
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your avatar piece! Ah this is really pretty and well even if the background was difficult it's really beautiful. I love how it has a bit of a foggy look to it that helps you focus on the pristine detail of the bird here really powerful. And speaking of which he is so beautiful and the direction of the feathers going over his body are so perfect (not that I'm surprised coming from you. ^^) And even the shine in his eye...looks so real and alive, love it!
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Thank you!! <3
Oh the feathers... it's one thing to know how feathers should be positioned (I have a few tiny, noisy references flying around here), but drawing them in the right direction, perspective and in depth...
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jeesh I could image but at any rate you have done splendidly!
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Thanks again! Also for all the comments and favs lately!
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I've seen what these birds can do to the rubber bits on a car, and it's absolutely hilarious......so long as it isn't your car!
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Beautifully done!
You did really well with those feathers.
They are real characters. They can strip the rubber from your car windscreen wipers, and if you're silly enough to leave your boots outside the tent overnight, they might steal the laces...
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Aw thank you! And great photo of a kea
Ha the little rascals.. If I ever go to New Zealand, I'll have to take precautions.. lol
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I love the details of the feathers! Very nice work.
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So beautiful! The detail on the feathers is amazing!
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Thank you, I'm glad you like it!
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I love keas, there was one at the Boston Zoo that I totally wanted to take home with me. I love the contrast between the kea in the foreground and the landscape in the background on this. The greens and blues have a great aesthetic effect and evoke a feeling of relaxation. Great work!
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Thanks for the feedback! Good to hear
Yeah they are very funny to observe, although taking one home is probably a bad idea. Unless you want to have a living shredder 
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Cool, thanks! I hope I did the New Zealand mountains right..
I've always wanted to go there and see the beautiful landscape and of course wild kea.
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you nailed it and I have seen wild kea...there really cheeky
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Good to hear, thanks!
I wonder - do you, New Zealanders, see them as a pest? I can imagine that their curious and destructive behavior is hard to live with. You must get annoyed sometimes..
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not really but they tend to take rubber and stuff of cars and take other thing and the ski parks pay you back for the damage they do that's why the charge a little more but there native and we love them
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The cheeky little rascals. I've only seen it in documentaries, but it is something else entirely to hear it from a native.
Really, the ski parks compensate the damage kea do? Lol... But glad to hear that you love them, despite the nuisance
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yea we do unlike the rats ands stoats and possums that take the food...I love all animals but invasive animals should really stay where belong
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Very true.. they are a danger to native species.
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they do so much damage its not funny
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The Antipodean parakeet, also from NZ, eats petrels.
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But does it hunt the petrels?
I looked it up immediately and indeed - they actually stalk them in their burrows oO impressive, and totally unexpected..
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Not really, considering parrots are in Australoaves, which also includes...falcons and terror birds.
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What do you mean with terror birds?
Birds of prey are, however, polyphyletic, so parrots may be closely related to falcons, but that doesn't mean that it is logical that parrots also hunt or eat meat. Most parrots are strictly herbivorous, and only eat insects when they have young to feed. That's why I was surprised that you have another example of a hunting parakeet! (Thanks for sharing anyway! I like to learn about bird!)
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The new bird classification system (biggest paper of its kind ever) puts falcons and terror birds as sister taxa to parrots and passerines.
Likely the common ancestor was predatory.
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Yes I've read about that, that falconiformes and psittaciformes were classified as sister taxa. But not the official paper..
But if you state it that way, it's also likely that the common ancestor was herbivorous and that predatory behavior evolved convergent in different bird orders. It's more parsimonious than evolving predatory behavior and then reversing it.
Do you mean this article? www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/… (if yes, I'm going to read that)
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Yes that massive article.
No, falcons and phorusracids are sister taxa and together they are sister taxa to psittacines and passerines (what a bizarre relation!), formign Australoaves. At least the common ancestor of falcons and terror birds was a predator, with the common ancestor of psittacines and passerines reverting back to omnivory or herbivory (at least that is stated in the article)
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Well, in a way it is not that surprising that psittaciformes and passeriformes are grouped. Both orders are vocally very skilled... But that alone is not a reason to group them of course. I'll read the article before I say anything stupid because I honestly don't know what characteristics they share or differ in. (I'm not into phylogeny, although it interests me)
The weird thing is that passeriformes should be reversed herbivorous/omnivorous then. Most passeriformes are insect eaters, aren't they?
For the course Vertebrate Evolution I've written an essay about the evolution of the beak in Aves and I found that the common ancestor of birds had many putative herbivorous traits. I've written that in 2012 and since then I've not read anything about bird evolution.. But if you're interested, I can give you a few titles of articles that I read for that essay.
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Wow, fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
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Great work, especially on the background! I struggle with backgrounds too, and one of my problems is whenever I draw mountains they look like big lumps of dirt in the foreground, instead of majestic mountains far away. You managed to convey both distance and size in your drawing
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Thanks! Indeed a struggle. I looked up some videos on youtube on values (greyscales) and they helped a lot. The depth is achieved by a darker foreground and lighter to the back. These are the videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=japZUa…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrit6O…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhyB1U…
And about color and shading: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRlc2B…
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