birds

Guelder rose Viburnum opulus leaf and fruit showing shiny red berries

Bittern Botaurus stellaris cut to white showing cryptic colouring and large beak and legs

Fieldfare Turdus pilaris with hawthorn berry sitting on branch

Fieldfare pair Turdus pilaris in hawthorn tree with one eating a berry.

Comparison of Beak use in Darwin’s Finches.  Stippled illustration showing singing, feeding, and preening.

Beak comparison in Darwin’s finches showing use feeding, singing, and preening.  Line drawing.

Singing Darwin’s Finch Geospiza fulginosa showing beak in use.  

Singing Darwins Finch Geospiza fuliginosa.  Line drawing showing Galapagos finch and beak use.

Bird preening Darwins Finch Geospiza magnirostris line drawing showing the beak in use in parasite removal

Preening Darwins Finch Geospiza magnirostris line drawing showing the beak in use in parasite removal

Darwins Finch Geospiza magnirostris with Tribulus seed.  Stippled illustration showing beak adaptability.

Gumbo-limbo or copperwood Bursera simaruba with detail of flowers and peeling bark

Breast feather of Cockerel, showing orange colour and area of green glittering iridescence.

Illustration from “30 Animals that made us smarter” by Patrick Ayree (BBC Books).  Illustration shows an albatross above the wides with distinctive wide wing span and hooked book with tube nostrils.

Rum or Black Cherry Prunus serotina sketchbook study.  The page includes two bark studies (from an old and young tree), the habit of tree, and berry details.  The bud, individual flower, blossoming raceme, vein detail and petiole gland details are also depicted.

Yew Taxus baccata sprig with berries an needles

Yew Taxus baccata tree showing typical growth form

Rowan or Mountain Ash Sorbus aucuparia berries and leaves on branch

Rowan Sorbus aucuparia tree showing typical habit and growth

Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna sketchbook study, with a focus on the berries or haws

Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna pen and ink botanical illustration with details of the berries (or haws), blossom, and individual leaf

Worm against grassy background, looking like it should be under the ground rather than crawlign about on top of it

Earthworm coiled and curled up showing its saddle and segmentation clearly, cut to white

pen and ink stippled diagram of a worm with detail of the spines that help earthworms move