Month: November 2019

OMG – the tokoeka is a Kiwi! How delightful! I really enjoy being a bit surprised by the subject of my design each day, so I research as I go. 

You can’t write about kiwi and not include this viral video.

Tokoeka – literally meaning ‘weka with a walking stick’ (Ngāi Tahu) – has three geographically and genetically distinct forms: 

Haast
Fiordland, and 
Rakiura (Stewart Island).

Haast tokoeka
A shy, mountain-loving bird, the Haast tokoeka is one of our rarest kiwi. More than half the known population lives in an actively managed area of the Haast ranges, where the battle continues to save these birds from extinction.
​Source:
DOC

The reclusiveness of Haast tokoeka makes it difficult to work with but so does the inhospitable environment in which it makes a home – the steep terrain and frequently cold, bad weather of the mountainous South Westland is not for everyone.

Most of the area in which Haast tokoeka are found is covered by the Haast Kiwi Sanctuary, where they are actively managed in situ and through Operation Nest Egg and a 12,000 ha stoat trapping programme.

Haast tokoeka are the first-equal endangered kiwi. Stoats are the main cause of death for many chicks. ​​
Source:
DOC

​Two subspecies are formally recognised: Fiordland tokoeka A. a. australis (Threatened/Nationally Vulnerable), and Stewart Island tokoeka A. a. lawryi (Threatened/Nationally Vulnerable). A third geographical form, Haast tokoeka A. a. ‘Haast’ (Threatened/Nationally Critical), from the Haast Range and Arawhata Valley, is recognised as being distinct for management purposes, based on morphological and genetic differentiation from Fiordland tokoeka.​
Source:
NZ birds online

So, DOC says that there are three sub-species, and NZ birds online says that there are only two, with the Haast tokoeka being only an administrative classification…

Wikipedia also recognises that there are two species, with the Hast population as genetically distinct.
The southern brown kiwi is divided into two subspecies:

A. a. australis, , with a population of approximately 7,000 birds is found on the South Island of New Zealand. A disjunct population, near Haast, called the Haast brown kiwi (not to be confused with Apteryx haastii), is rare (with only about 250 specimens left) and is characterised by its rufous plumage.
Source:
Wikipedia

Right, so in summary, there are 5 species of kiwi.

• ​One species, Apteryx australis, has two subspecies, Apteryx australis australis, and Apteryx australis lawryi. 
• Sub-species Apteryx australis australis includes a disjunct population, near Haast, called the Haast brown kiwi, or tokoeka, which is rare (with only about 250 specimens left) and is characterised by its rufous plumage.​

​And, ok, yeah, it looks pretty understandable that people looking for a kiwi (genus Apteryx) commonly known as the “Haast tokoeka” might think that the Apteryx haastii might be the right bird, especialiiy as it is found on the West Coast of the South Island, although it’s in the northern parts, rather than down south near Haast – the plot thickens!

​Oh, no it doesn’t. It’s just one of those weird coincidences:

In 1871, two specimens [of the great spotted kiwi] were brought to the Canterbury Museum, where they were identified as a new species and were named after the museum’s curator, Dr. Haast.
Source:
Wikipedia

This video includes a slightly awkward commentary, but it also includes a kiwi calling, so it’s pretty cool.

I have drawn kiwi plenty of times before, but never with as much attention to the anatomy of the bird. Kiwi have such a recognisable shape that there’s not much need for accuracy in order to convey that your drawing is a kiwi. 

This time around, I’m drawing “for realz”, so it’s time to really look at the anatomy of the kiwi.

And now, we start the sketches. First, I blocked out a few poses using a simplified skeleton, then I fleshed them out as outlines.

The outlines didn’t take long, but the feathers… The feathers took forever. You can still see the turquoise outlines under the final black lines, here.

And those feathers were a PAIN to colour – but they are done!

OK, so at first glance, this just looks like “a duck”. Like, a normal duck.

OK, yes, fair enough, it looks like a female “normal duck”, or mallard. The colour of the head is a bit lighter. And I’m not sure that I have noticed that cheeky flash of underwing colour on a “standard” (or mallard) duck. 

Aha, this might be why:

The New Zealand grey duck population is believed to be extensively hybridised with introduced mallards to such an extent that few pure grey ducks may now exist, hence its “critical” conservation status. While this presumption is based entirely on phenotype, as definitive genetic studies have yet to be undertaken, the diversity of soft part and plumage characteristics of most grey duck-like New Zealand birds compared to those in Australia lends support to this belief.
[…]
Similar species: grey ducks are easily confused with female mallard from which they can be distinguished by (the following distinctive markings of a mallard):

• bright orange legs and feet
• orange-and-brown bills
• more diffuse eye and bill stripes and mottled face
• a blue speculum edged with white both at front and back.

Hybrid grey x mallard ducks are confusingly variable in most characteristics and otherwise “good” grey ducks need to be examined closely for any indication of anterior speculum stripe (alar bar) on wing (white or fawn, narrow or wide…if it is visible it is probably of hybrid ancestry), hints of orange on legs, and “dirty” cream face with indistinct edges to the facial stripes.
Source:
NZ birds online (my formatting and editing)

OK, so what’s a speculum in this context?​ Oh, it’s the cheeky flash of colour on the wing!

So we need:

• olive legs and feet
• dark grey bill
• sharply-delineated eye and bill stripes, and a ‘clean’ face
• green speculum with white edging only at the back (the trailing or outer edge of the feather from the body of the bird).

Here’s an article from NZ Fish and Game with some more details about the differences between the two ducks, and some examples of types of hybrids. Warning – while there are no upsetting photos, this is intended for hunters, and uses some language that might upset some people. It is linked here only because of the useful information it contains.

​Another thing to note is that, while in New Zealand, this bird is called the grey duck or pārera, it is known internationally as the Pacific black duck.

So now that we have our ducks in a row, it’s time to start drawing ducks!

Last week was absolutely nuts, and unfortunately, several things came up that pushed out my ability to finish my duck design – so we are shooting for one-and-a-half designs today. Wish me luck!

I managed to do my research and get the initial outlines sketched out on Friday before things turned to custard and I had to put the design on hold, so today so far has been about choosing the final lines to draw, and filling in the feather detail. 

​I decided to do some really detailed feather work on these birds, as the reference photos were so crisp, so that took much longer than usual, as did the colouring of all those feathers.

Using reference photos, I tried to reflect the feather colours without compromising my ligne claire style – so no shading, or multiple hues within one outline. It meant re-colouring the same feathers several times to get the effect I wanted, and took a long time – but I eventually reached a stage that felt like a good balance between accuracy and my faithfulness to my type of stylised artwork.

Because the Gibson’s Wandering Albatross ended up being a duplicate, I did a bonus grey duck, so there are 5 today. 

​Oh dear, there are multiple species called “toroa” on this list, and I didn’t realise. Ok, let’s make sure that we get the differences between them really clear!

Consulting Wikipedia:
Current thinking divides the albatrosses into four genera. The number of species is a matter of debate. The IUCN and BirdLife International recognise 22 extant species (listed below), ITIS recognise 21 (the 22 below minus T. steadi), and one recent paper proposed a reduction to 13 (indicated in parentheses below), comprising the traditional 14 species minus D. amsterdamensis.

We have already covered the Antipodean albatross, aka toroa.
Today, we are looking at the Gibson’s wandering albatross/toroa, and we still also have to cover the Salvin’s albatross or mollymawk/toroa, too.

Based on the species information from NZ birds online article about the Antipodean albatross, pictured above, the Gibson’s albatross is actually a subspecies – and I have already drawn two birds with Gibson’s markings. 

DOC also lumps them together in their article – and given that we have so many birds to cover, we are going to call this one done (because it is!) and move on to the next. 

My first thought was: “Magenta petrel” sounds amazing… but the bird is not at all pink or red…
“​At sea, one bird was taken as a specimen in 1867 and named the Magenta petrel after the Italian expedition’s ship” – oh. 

​The tāiko is among New Zealand’s most endangered species. It’s considered to be on the brink of extinction, with about only 15 known breeding pairs.

The tāiko was believed to be extinct for almost a century, until its rediscovery by David Crockett in 1978. In 1987, the first tāiko burrow was found in southern Chatham Island.

Source:
NZ birds online

The reference photos in this particular NZ birds online article are really useful – lots of great, clear pictures of the head and wings. As usual, no good pictures of their wee feet, but I can figure them out. 

I find it particularly interesting that these birds burrow. Check out this clip from the Chatham Island Taiko Trust Facebook page!

The reference photos are great, but there aren’t many to show how the birds actually move around. Most of the resources show the birds being handled, as with the clip below, or are from quite a long way away – so if I have made errors, I apologise.

Now that I have completed my initial sketches, it’s time to choose the final lines.

And, as usual, I use reference photos to set the colours. These birds are definitely not grey, though, so I have broken with tradition and used brown-grey tones to colour them in.

I thought about standing them on rocks, but I can’t decide if I like that or not. The pose looks weird without rocks, though. I will revisit this when I build the final design, but I think no rocks is best for now.

Today has been a busy day, with errands and earrings taking up most of the daylight. As I finally settle down to draw, El Huzbando is already making our dinner!

Shags have a very distinct silhouette, and, with their amusing name, became one of the only non-forest birds that I could recognise easily – but there are so many species! 
The watercolour image below shows the importance of tiny details in making sure each species is correctly represented.

The Chatham Island shag is a critically endangered shag which, as its name suggests, is restricted to the Chatham Islands. It is the only large black-and-white shag in the island group. Despite their declining population, Chatham Island shags can still readily be found roosting on headlands along the rocky coast line. They are entirely marine, dispersing from colonies and roost sites to forage in coastal waters and within parts of the brackish Te Whanga Lagoon. During breeding, compact colonies form on rocky headlands and offshore islets located throughout the Chatham Islands.
Source:
NZ birds online

These pictures illustrate my process of matching the colours from the photos – just colour-dropping the photos doesn’t work, as the colours you see in a photo are not the colours that actually make up the pixels of that photo. Here, you can see the colour-dropped orange, compared to the orange that I actually matched by eye to the photo. 

I particularly enjoy the blue eyes and punky hairstyles of these wee blokes.

​Populations of Chatham Island shag are threatened by loss of breeding habitat, disturbance from stock, human persecution, introduced predators, and gull predation. However, given that population declines have been recorded at colonies on remote predator-free offshore islands, it is likely that some type of at-sea effects are impacting on the population. There has been no direct conservation management action to benefit Chatham Island shag other than co-ordinated island-wide population censuses. The recent increase in fencing coastal habitats on the Chatham Islands will prevent stock from gaining access to some colonies, thereby reducing disturbance.

The conservation status of this species was changed from nationally endangered to nationally critical.
Source:
NZ birds online

It’s sometimes hard to get started on a drawing. Generally, I just let myself choose another task, and come back to the drawing when the mood takes me – but I have committed to a bird every weekday, so here we go – my first attempt at overcoming “drawer’s block”.

We looked at the Chatham Islands for the Chatham Islands black robin last week, so I won’t repeat myself there. Many of our most endangered species appear to have a last toehold there, though. It must be a fascinating place to visit, as a wildlife photographer. 

The Chatham Island oystercatcher (torea) is a threatened species found only on the Chatham Islands, 800 km to the east of mainland New Zealand. Although pied (black-and-white), and similar in appearance to the pied morph of the variable oystercatcher, it is a smaller and stockier bird. Pairs defend coastal territories throughout the year in rocky and sandy sites around the islands of the Chathams.
Source:
NZ birds online

This black and white wader is unique to the Chatham Islands. It is an endangered species with a high risk of extinction due to its very small population and range.
Source:
​DOC

Ok, well, these guys are actually adorable, so I think, yep, I am getting the urge to draw them, yay!

I make the initial sketches (grey), then I go over them in black. This reflects my technique on paper, with pencil sketches followed by finals in pen. 

As with all my other pieces, I use the existing drawings to ensure that the same shades are used in the plumage, then use reference photos to choose colours specific to this bird, usually the beak and/or feet. 

Finished! I really like these guys. I definitely had to show a bird nesting on the shingle – their nests, like many of our endangered birds, are almost invisible against the stones around them. PLEASE, take great care around nesting areas.

​Oystercatchers depend on the coast for their food and for a safe place to rear their young. Nesting birds are easily disturbed by people and will move from the nest to draw you away. Birds with chicks are often noisy and may swoop.

If birds appear to be disturbed by your presence, move further along the beach.
Walk or drive below the high tide mark to avoid crushing eggs or chicks.
If you are travelling to the Chatham Islands, or transporting goods or livestock there, be careful that you don’t introduce pest animals and plants or diseases. These could threaten the flora and fauna in this unique environment.

​Source:
​DOC

Not that long ago, I found out that black-billed gulls were actually endangered. I hadn’t ever really looked at the seagulls at the beach except to protect whatever I was trying to eat*, or avoid being pooed on, as happened on a recent walk along Petone foreshore.
​
*Never feed gulls any food or scraps – some of our food is harmful to them.

The black-billed gull has the unfortunate status of being the most threatened gull species in the world. Stronghold populations have rapidly declined by as much as 80%, resulting in its threat status being upgraded from Nationally Endangered to Nationally Critical in 2013.
Source:
DOC

Though still relatively abundant, numbers of birds throughout the South Island have rapidly declined. Nevertheless, colonies can still number in the thousands. The black-billed gull is found only in New Zealand, unlike our two other common gull species. They are less likely to be found in towns and cities than the other gulls, and are not commonly observed scavenging for food. Interestingly, though declining overall, the black-billed gull has expanded its breeding range in the North Island in the last few decades, and now breeds as far north as the Kaipara Harbour.
Source:
NZ birds online

As a Kiwi, on our islands where almost nowhere is too far from the ocean to get visits from seagulls, I am pretty familiar with them, in a general sense, so I know what types of poses I want before I even start drawing – flying, standing, floating, and doing a SCREM.

Quick scribbles are really useful to establish what might or might not work.

So these guys appear to have the same kind of webbed feet as ducks. Getting them not to look silly is quite difficult!

And then, as previously, I use existing designs to ensure that the colours used are consistent across the board, and the reference photos to identify colours that will be specific to this design.

And there we go – the first week of a bird a day is complete!

Breeding sites [for black-billed gulls] are mainly the large braided riverbeds of the South Island. There are scattered colonies on the North Island coast, along with braided rivers in the Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa, as well as Lake Rotorua and Lake Taupo.
​Source:
DOC
​Please take special care not to drive or walk in areas where birds are nesting – they are easy to spot if you are paying attention. 

​Braided rivers are a beautiful part of the New Zealand landscape.

In my family, we are particularly tied to the Rakaia River mouth, so braided rivers have a special place in my heart. That’s why I commissioned this beautiful tide clock from Wooden Kiwi for my mum in 2017.

​These are personal family photos of the beautiful Rakaia River mouth, which generally forms a “lagoon” against the shingle bank. We often saw birds nesting on this bank, and carefully avoided the area.

Kakii, or black stilt, is a native wading bird only found in New Zealand. It is regarded by Maaori as a taonga species, a living treasure.
Source:
DOC

Once the common stilt of New Zealand, the black stilt is now critically endangered with a breeding population confined to the Mackenzie Basin of South Canterbury and North Otago. Adults are distinctive in having entirely black plumage, long red legs and a thin black bill, but juveniles and subadults can easily be overlooked amongst pied stilts, while hybrids add to the plumage confusion. Black stilts frequent the wide open braided rivers and associated wetlands of the Mackenzie Basin. There they favour shallow waters of invertebrate-rich sidestreams and pools, wading out into deep water if necessary. Some birds migrate to northern New Zealand harbours.
Source:
NZ birds online

Yup, this is another bird with one of those complicated neck situations – not as weird as the bittern, or matuku, but certainly a little more challenging than the adorable wee Chatham Islands black robin.

The process is definitely getting easier and faster – I can already crank out the types of poses I want to draw quite fast, then build the actual birds over the top with reference to photos and video. 
One thing that struck me, though, when I pasted in yesterday’s Chatham Islands black robin so that I could keep the colours consistent, was that the scale of these birds is not consistent. 

As an experiment, I increased the size of my initial â€‹kakÄ« sketches to a more realistic relationship between the 40cm stilts and the 15cm black robins, but then, I realised that the bitterns should be around 75cm tall (I assume, at full stretch), and as for the albatross… It wasn’t looking like an easy fix to address now, especially with so many remaining designs to finish. So, I will continue to create the images at a scale that MS Paint can handle (it crashed when I tried to work on the 4x larger file), and scale them all to each other at the end, when I do the final colouring, too. 
Perhaps I will vectorise them, perhaps I will just re-draw the ones that are going into the final “advent calendar” design. We shall see!

It’s really helpful to already have the plumage colours set, so I don’t have to spend ages worrying about that for now, so all I needed to do was choose a shade for the legs and beaks, then make some decisions from the range of colours I have already set for black birds. Again, everything goes much faster when the decisions have already been made!

I am definitely not the only one paying attention to the plight of our local species. Many other creatives in the craft community do a lot to raise awareness, and even funds, to help a particular bird.
One of my favourite Kiwi bird artists is Melissa Boardman. Here is her take on the kakÄ«, which is the design that I am working on today. 

​Our styles are very different, which I really enjoy, and she shares a great many of her own photos of birdlife, as well, which has helped me get to know so many lovely birds, and pay attention when I am out and about myself.
​So, of course, I had to get myself some of her work!

I hope my kakī artwork measures up!

It’s so difficult, and overwhelming, when you think of how many creatures need our help.

One way to help the wildlife of New Zealand is to donate to Forest and Bird, who run the Bird of the Year competition.

Another option is to check out the individual organisations dedicated to a particular bird. I try to share some of their posts in these blogs, so click through and see what they are up to and what you can do to help.

There is also a section on the DOC article for each bird about how you can help. Here is an example for the black stilt/kakī:

• Do not drive in riverbeds from August to December.
• Birds swooping, circling or calling loudly probably have nests nearby. Move away so they can return to them, or their eggs and chicks could die.
• Watch The Black Stilt documentary on NZ on Screen
• Keep updated on the KakÄ« Recovery Programme on their Facebook page
• Visit the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust website
• Learn about Project River Recovery
• Visit the Te Manahuna Aoraki website

​Robins in general are tiny creatures, straining at the seams to encompass enormous personalities. From what I can tell, the Chatham Islands black robin is no different. 

The Chatham Islands are a New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometres (500 mi) east of the South Island of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about ten islands within an approximate 60-kilometre (37 mi) radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Some of these islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. As of 2013 the islands had a resident population of 600.[1] The local economy depends largely on conservation, tourism, farming, and fishing.
Source:
Wikipedia

The black robin is endemic to the Chatham Islands where it is now confined to the southern extremity of its former range. It is a quiet, confiding forest-dweller, alert and almost always active in the lower forest strata. Birds are commonly attracted to human presence. The species is famous world-wide for its inspiring recovery from imminent extinction in the early 1980s.
Source:
NZ birds online

Sometimes, there are some really heartwarming stories in conservation. The idea that one female robin helped save an entire species is simply incredible, and yet, the story of Old Blue was exactly that. Although the genetic diversity was affected, of course, by all being descended from the one female, the species was still saved. Thank you to Don Merton and everyone else involved.

The good thing about black robins is that there’s nothing confusing about their anatomy. The hard thing is, how do you find four sufficiently different poses for this adorable borb?

Turns out, they just flowed right off my pen! I love their cute little whiskers and their fluffy feathers that almost look like a pelt. 

​Just like all the others, these have been coloured in greyscale for the feathers, and colour for beaks and legs – but I think in this case, these guys might actually be finished!

The endangered matuku inhabits wetlands throughout New Zealand. DOC is focusing on developing methods for surveying bittern systematically and for restoring wetlands.
Source: 
DOC

Bitterns are extremely cryptic and rarely seen. This is due to their secretive behaviour, inconspicuous plumage and the inaccessibility of their habitat. Their presence is most commonly discerned through hearing the distinctive ‘booming’ call of the males during the breeding season. Bittern occasionally show themselves in the open along wetland edges, dykes, drains, flooded paddocks or roadsides, often adopting their infamous ‘freeze’ stance, with the bill pointing skyward, even when caught out in the open.
Source:
NZ birds online

​Read more about the matuku and its importance, both ecologically and culturally, here and here. 

As always, when trying to get to know subjects like rare native birds, I have to lean on online resources for information on what they look like and how they move. As usual for this series, my main sources are:

• Te Papa Atawhai, The Department of Conservation (DOC) 
• NZ birds online

The Bittern Conservation – New Zealand Facebook page (follow it! help amplify their message!) has this lovely video of bitterns “booming” – it sounds a little bit like that sound you make when you blow into a glass bottle (not the cows lowing). Several of the other photos used for reference here are also from their page – I embed the code or link to the page wherever I can, so you can click straight through to the source. 

When I draw something, I need to know how exactly it fits together, even though I only end up drawing what I can actualy see. This is particularly important with my ligne claire style, as there’s no room for shading or additional pencil lines to help give a sense of depth – it’s all about choosing the perfect line to convey the shape of the subject.

When I draw plants, I take lots of photos, but I also move the plant around, and really look at how everything joins to everything else.

​That kind of manipulation is not something your average rare bird will tolerate. So for animals, I go to their anatomy, and try to see how it aligns with the photos I can see.
​But what is the deal with all that neck situation??

I was thrilled to discover this blog post by Emily Willoughby after finding the above image via Google. The work of a self-described “paleoartist” is precisely what I need to help me understand this bizarre phenomenon. 

It’s really helpful to use the photos to understand how the underlying body functions, so that when I get to the drawings, they look like they articulate correctly. For example, not many of the photos show the feet, but I know how they work, so I can add them in. I can also change the angle of the head, the exact attitude of the wings, etc.
Speaking of the wings, that’s the other thing that I am working through – how the feathers work and what level of detail I need to show to convey the changes in colouring, without losing the simplicity of the design.

The next stage, once I have investigated the structure and experimented with a few poses, is to choose the ones I like best to develop into final images. 

Once I was satisfied with the outlines, I compared them to photos and made sure that the markings made sense, in a stylised fashion, then coloured them, as before, in greyscale to represent the different shades of the plumage. The final colours will be set once all the birds are complete.

And done! It’s almost midnight, time to crash, but I made it!