#2926 "Winter Snowbirds on the Wing"

#2926 "Winter Snowbirds on the Wing" 
16 X 20 oils on stretched canvas.
Started at 11:00 am Tuesday February 18th, 2025 

During the late winter of 2023, I painted a flock of snowbirds as artistic step number 2742 "Snowbirds" (below). 

There were 49 birds in that flock. It was very easy to get lost in the feathers and the wing beats. I tried to keep the brush strokes as alive and fresh as the souls in those little birds. 

There were only five birds in the 2025 painting. These little birds possess a lot of personality that twinkles in their eyes and even on their beaks. The bird on the lower right has a wry smile on its beak with an eye turned toward the artist... 

Both of these snow bunting paintings are based on images 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. 

Snowbirds are busy little buntings. They can make those chilly and snowy winter days come alive with frenetic energy. I wanted that energy in the painting. They can flit across the landscape in flocks of hundreds of birds at speeds approaching 45 km per hour.  The restless buntings constantly flush along like drifting and blowing snow in the winter. Birds leapfrog over each other as they forage

Sadly, their numbers are declining - populations declined approximately 38% between 1970 and 2014. Habitat loss is certainly a major factor. There are five snow buntings in this most recent painting. 

Snow Buntings may forage and migrate in flocks but become more solitary when it comes to defending nesting sites during breeding season. Snow Buntings breed in the high Arctic among rocky crevices where their crisp white plumage blends in with the snowy landscape. In the winter, they acquire rusty tones that help them blend in with their more southern winter homes of bare ground and crop stubble. We see them in southern Ontario wearing their winter browns, and that is the way I painted them. We only see them in January and early February, typically the coldest portion of the winter. 

Male Snow Buntings head to their high arctic breeding grounds when the ground is still covered in snow and temperatures still dip to -30 degrees Celsius. That doesn't seem like a good time to arrive, but males need to arrive early to make sure they get one of the limited nesting spots in a rock crevice. Females join them 3 to 4 weeks later when things start to warm up.

The Snow Bunting places its nest deep in cracks or other cavities in rocks. Although such nest sites are relatively secure from predators, rocks are cold. The thick nest lining of fur and feathers helps keep the eggs and nestlings warm, but the female must stay on the nest for most of the incubation period. The male brings her food almost every 15 minutes to keep the nest-bound female healthy.

Although breeding and nonbreeding Snow Buntings look quite different, the change from nonbreeding to breeding plumage isn't caused by growing in a new set of feathers (molt). The change from brownish to pure white happens when males rub their bellies and heads on the snow, wearing down the brown feather tips to reveal immaculate white features below.

The oldest recorded Snow Bunting was a male, and at least 8 years, 9 months old when he was recaptured and rereleased in 1979 during banding operations in Alaska, the same state where he was banded in 1970.

#2926 "Winter Snowbirds on the Wing" was completed in front of the high-efficiency Pacific Energy wood stove with the tunes playing on a vintage 1977 Radio Shack Realistic stereo. I am old school! 

For increased fuel efficiency, the fire uses outside air piped into the back of the wood stove for combustion. I plumbed an inverted "warm air trap" to prevent chilly outside air from gravity-forced drainage into the firebox. The principle is similar to the trap on water plumbing. Using this approach, outside air drawn into the firebox is combusted and sent up the chimney in a closed system. There is very little smoke produced by the efficient Pacific Energy stove. As well, the precious firewood is not wasted. 

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