Penultimate day of our January Challenge, version 2025! I finished part two of yesterday's sketch, and it's a bird with a funny name, I mean, it's named for a feature it does NOT have. Meet the Spotless Starling, Sturnus unicolor, found throughout Spain and into nearby areas, including Morocco. This bird was a real target of mine - for the name alone! It really is this shaggy, and usually appears black, with green and bronzy-purple iridescence.

Spotless Starling Sturnus unicolor
Granada Spain, September 7, 2024

Starlings, with and without spots
European Starling and Spotless Starling

New birds have been a challenge to find again, as cold and windy days have returned to Connecticut (after a few pleasant days). Today Jorge brings you our feisty Black-capped Chickadee, year-round resident and a familiar visitor to backyard feeders.

Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus
on a branch of Staghorn Sumac, Rhus typhina

 Today's painting was ambitious, and I finished only half of it. Tomorrow will be part two! Stay tuned... The familiar European Starling sports a really incredible coat in the non-breeding season - iridescent purple and green with little chevrons of white at the tip of each feather. When the breeding season rolls around, the feather tips have mostly worn away, leaving a uniform black-looking bird - this is called "wear molt" even though it's not technically a molt.

European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, in non-breeding plumage

Jorge's bird for today is one that uses the nest boxes around Horsebarn Hill in the springtime. This time of year when everything is gray and brown, the Eastern Bluebird is a little fleck of the bright sky flitting through the landscape - in fields, woodlands and even our yard. 

Eastern Bluebird, Sialia sialis, Windsor, Connecticut
- male, perching on a poison ivy vine -

The easiest way to portray a bird is in profile. Perhaps it's the best way to show the proportions - the length of the beak relative to the head, and so on. Today I'm trying to stretch my skills to show the bird in some different postures. This is one of our favorites, the Carolina Wren, whose cheerful song brings joy all spring and summer - really it does. And they stick around through the winter too, visiting our feeders and finding insects hidden in the woodpile.

Carolina Wren, Thryothorus ludovicianus
Storrs-Mansfield, Connecticut, year-round

With the sustained cold weather we've had this month, water is a real magnet for birds. Jorge found these European Starlings taking advantage of a bird-sized water supply on campus in the afternoon.

European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris
UConn campus, Storrs, Connecticut