Awkward birds (occasionally)

Zyz | they/she Sharing birds and saving my art journey. Requests for birds always welcome!

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

On hiatus

Hi! I'm Zyz - I doodle, I like birds, I want to get better at doodling birds.

Prints | Ko-fi

some info about the blog and tags below...

#bird of the day - "official" bird posts #doodles - almost any art that isn't an official bird post #not art - any random text ramblings

Requests are most welcome! (don't even need to be a bird!)

You can can search for birds by their order (eg. columbiformes) or family (eg. columbidae) which I tag. The common or scientific names are often not tagged.

If you have anything to share, do reblog/comment/dm/give an ask... any interaction makes this much more fun than just speaking into a void.

Thanks for perching by, have a great day and here is a random avian friend generated by ebird for you.

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Any Artfighters here? :>

It's been YEARS since I last participated! Here's my profile I would love to doodle any fun creatures you have.

Can you believe I have no bird characters yet (will soon tho if I ever draw my Kenku from D&D)

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Bird #93 - Regent honeyeater (CR)

In the wild, regent honeyeaters are so rare that young birds are struggling to learn the song of their own species; the complexity of their song has decreased across generations, and some honeyeaters now sing the calls of other birds. This gradual loss of identity could impact their ability to find a mate.

On a brighter note, active conservation and a successful captive breeding program are in place, and the species is unlikely to go extinct as long as we continue to aid them.

[zyzscribbles]

Important question

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Okay but I think these two are onto something

[zyzscribbles]

Important question

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

im actually pretty curious what the consensus on this would be...

pants birds???

top left

top right

bottom right

Voting ended onJun 8

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Bird #92 - Guadelupe caracara (EX)

Back to my roots with extinct birds... The Guadelupe caracara, also known as the calalie or quelili, was considered common in 1876. Within a mere 30 years, the combination of active hunting from farmers and habitat destruction brought them to extinction. The last confirmed sighting was in 1900.

Full (and not flickering) image, plus some ramblings from me:

With extinct species, I always wish we knew more about their behaviours. The closely related crested caracara are unique for falcons in that they hunt on foot rather than from the air, and pairs will cooperate when hunting. Pairs form strong bonds together. They are also known allopreen with black vultures, which is quite strange.

Anyways I just wonder if the Guadelupe caracara acted similarly, and which aspects of its life were different.

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Me if I was a duck with my beautiful duck wife, and fish swimming in the sky for some reason.

Wishing everyone a lovely June :>

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Bird #91 - Microraptor gui (EX)

Based on this incredible fossil. I return from the dead to bring you: my favourite dinosaur!!! Did you know powered flight/bird-like creatures likely evolved multiple times?? Modern birds are the only lineage that still persists, but many other pseudo-birds co-existed with them in the Jurassic and Cretaceous.

Also I still don't have my new ipad and apple pencil lol I'm waiting for the case to ship and it's gonna take A While.

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Nightmare? Day stallion? Good dream gelding?

This was meant to be a little colour study and now I like it a lot, but the dimensions are too small :,)

Also tried altering the hues, as usual I can't pick one favourite

I'm hoping to use my hiatus to practice things like form & colour which I want to work on! Also soon I'll finally have a stylus with pressure sensitivity for the first time in my ~6 years of digital art. I'm SO excited.

[20kleagueszine]

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[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

oh hey look that's my sea slugs :D

go check out the zine its so amazing i feel very honoured to be part of this project!

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

I'll be gone for a while! I dont want this blog falling into sad silence, but I don't think I'll have the time or motivation to continue the birds for a while. Initially wanted to reach bird #100 before a hiatus, but I think stopping now is for the best :c

Here's also a little wip of a superb lyrebird, suggested by @slightylightly - they've been on my mental to-draw list for AGES, i'll try to finish it some day! Hopefully i'll return some time this year!

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Bird #90 - Blue-footed booby (LC)

Do you ever think about how these animals will never know nor understand how silly they seem to us? Also, boobies are in fact the sister group to the elegant gannets, and they share the same grace and ferocity when diving for fish or in the air. I just think they look so funny when they do big steppies to show off their feet.

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Bird #89 - leucistic Bohemian waxwing! (LC)

Largest of the waxwings, these divas are found all throughout the northern hemisphere. The 'wax' tips on their wings are actually just extensions of their flight feathers, coloured by carotenoids from the berries they eat!

I've been fighting some art block but finally managed to make something I actually like :D painting white or black things is so fun

Prints

[ilikeloons]

I felt like this deserved a spookier edit.

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Not sure if this fits the spookiness requirements, but was very fun to paint!

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Bird #88 - Schalow's turaco (LC) Requested by anon

This gorgeous (and strange) bird can be found in some wooded parts of Africa, searching for fruits and bugs. Their eBird page contains the sentence "Acts like a typical turaco, bouncing through the trees". I just think that gives a delightful mental image.

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

"Ah yeah, no one knows what to do with those things now. One day the concrete will pave over their little patch, too, and maybe we'll just forget about them."

Ramblings and alternative colour version:

THIS WAS MEANT TO BE POSTED AROUND NEW YEAR, I had the idea for weeks. Heavily inspired by Shaun Tan's 'Tales of the Inner City' (incredible book), which includes a story of a child imagining horses running in a modern city; free from abuse and labour, and their previous importance to civilisation forgotten.

Anyways it's year of the horse. Happy new year! I want to get better at drawing horses this year so expect much horse to come.

I think this version looks nicer tbh, just further from the vibes I was aiming for. For now I have no clue which one to put on INPRNT.

[zyzscribbles]

Parrot things.

@sweetiesugarbird's Cleo with her lovely hat, @bee-menagerie's Quimby doing a silly flip, @smauggles does a dinosaur and @pennaraptor's Bruce practicing acrobatics (happy birbday!!). (hope you don't mind the ping/the doodles! your birds have brought me much joy)

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

i made a second blog for doodles so this one can be dedicated to higher effort art! Go follow there if you prefer the sillies instead.