#2922 "Blue Bunting of Happiness"

 

#2922 "Blue Bunting of Happiness"
16x20 Oils on canvas
Started Thursday, February 6th, 2025 in the Singleton Studio

This image of a male indigo bunting was taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration during the winter when the windchill encourages me to stay within the Singleton Studio.

The focus of this painting was to match the colours of blue on this magnificent bird. I used almost every hue of blue in my oil arsenal - which is considerable. Like all other blue birds, Indigo Buntings lack blue pigment. Their jewel-like colour comes instead from microscopic structures in the feathers that refract and reflect blue light through Rayleigh scattering. Bunting plumage does contain the pigment melanin which has a dull brown-black hue. You will see the actual melanin colours if you hold a bunting feather with the light passing through it to your eye. If you turn around so that the light is reflected from the feather, you will see the "indigo bunting blue". Indigo is a deep, rich blue colour with a slight violet hue.

The all-blue male Indigo Bunting sings with cheerful gusto and looks like a scrap of sky with wings. Sometimes nicknamed "blue canaries," these brilliantly coloured yet common and widespread birds whistle their bouncy songs through the late spring and summer all over eastern North America. Look for Indigo Buntings in weedy fields and shrubby areas near trees, singing from dawn to dusk atop the tallest perch in sight or foraging for seeds and insects in low vegetation.

• Indigo Buntings migrate at night, using the stars for guidance. The birds possess an internal clock that enables them to continually adjust their angle of orientation to a star—even as that star moves through the night sky.
• Indigo Buntings learn their songs as youngsters, from nearby males but not from their fathers. Buntings a few hundred yards apart generally sing different songs, while those in the same "song neighbourhood" share nearly identical songs. A local song may persist up to 20 years, gradually changing as new singers add novel variations.
• Indigo and Lazuli buntings defend territories against each other in the western Great Plains where they occur together, share songs, and sometimes interbreed.
• The oldest recorded wild Indigo Bunting was a male and at least 13 years, 3 months old when he was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Ohio in 2013.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick