Jump to content
Whatbird Community

Making another bird coloring book!


Recommended Posts

Thanks for the trivia suggestions. I'll be doing the event tomorrow!

Here's a colony of Gentoo Penguins, which was taken in Antarctica by a new friend on Facebook. I've been wanting to add more sense of setting to some illustrations, and Antarctica is a cool place! (Click on the image to see a slightly better quality version.)

GentooPenguins.png

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bird trivia went well! I asked people five questions, and gave hints. Here's the set of questions I used. If you want to bird trivia of your own, feel free to use these.

What is the national bird of the U.S.? Bald Eagle

What’s a bird that you might find in Antarctica? Penguin or others

What is the largest bird in the world? Ostrich

Name a bird that can’t fly. Ostrich, penguin, kiwi, cassowary, and lots more

What type of bird can fly backwards? Hummingbird

What is the symbol of the Audubon Society? Great Egret

What bird has the longest wingspan? Wandering Albatross

What’s the state bird of Arizona? Cactus Wren

What’s a bird that puts its eggs in another bird’s nest? Cuckoo, cowbird, and others

What bird has the nickname of “Howdy Bird”? Burrowing Owl

What is a group of owls called? A parliament

Also, a Keel-billed Toucan! To go along with these drawings, I want to provide some interesting text. Let me know if you have ideas.

KeelBilledToucan.png

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, GracesWarbler said:

Bird trivia went well! I asked people five questions, and gave hints. Here's the set of questions I used. If you want to bird trivia of your own, feel free to use these.

What is the national bird of the U.S.? Bald Eagle

 

What’s a bird that you might find in Antarctica? Penguin or others

 

What is the largest bird in the world? Ostrich

 

Name a bird that can’t fly. Ostrich, penguin, kiwi, cassowary, and lots more

 

What type of bird can fly backwards? Hummingbird

 

What is the symbol of the Audubon Society? Great Egret

 

What bird has the longest wingspan? Wandering Albatross

 

What’s the state bird of Arizona? Cactus Wren

 

What’s a bird that puts its eggs in another bird’s nest? Cuckoo, cowbird, and others

 

What bird has the nickname of “Howdy Bird”? Burrowing Owl

 

What is a group of owls called? A parliament

Also, a Keel-billed Toucan! To go along with these drawings, I want to provide some interesting text. Let me know if you have ideas.

KeelBilledToucan.png

Sweet! Good fer you.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, GracesWarbler said:

Bird trivia went well! I asked people five questions, and gave hints. Here's the set of questions I used. If you want to bird trivia of your own, feel free to use these.

What is the national bird of the U.S.? Bald Eagle

 

What’s a bird that you might find in Antarctica? Penguin or others

 

What is the largest bird in the world? Ostrich

 

Name a bird that can’t fly. Ostrich, penguin, kiwi, cassowary, and lots more

 

What type of bird can fly backwards? Hummingbird

 

What is the symbol of the Audubon Society? Great Egret

 

What bird has the longest wingspan? Wandering Albatross

 

What’s the state bird of Arizona? Cactus Wren

 

What’s a bird that puts its eggs in another bird’s nest? Cuckoo, cowbird, and others

 

What bird has the nickname of “Howdy Bird”? Burrowing Owl

 

What is a group of owls called? A parliament

Also, a Keel-billed Toucan! To go along with these drawings, I want to provide some interesting text. Let me know if you have ideas.

KeelBilledToucan.png

Nice! I would have flunked two of those, never heard of a "howdy bird" and I couldn't have told you the Audubon symbol.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Nice! I would have flunked two of those, never heard of a "howdy bird" and I couldn't have told you the Audubon symbol.

Same here bout the “howdy bird”. Well I might have been able to guess that if I thought real hard.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Nice! I would have flunked two of those, never heard of a "howdy bird" and I couldn't have told you the Audubon symbol.

25 minutes ago, Snake Fingers said:

Same here bout the “howdy bird”. Well I might have been able to guess that if I thought real hard.

Yeah, that one is probably the hardest, so I didn't use it much. Still, I think it's a fun bit of trivia. Apparently cowboys thought that the head bobbing of Burrowing Owls looked like they were poking their heads up to say "Howdy".

As for the state bird of Arizona, people kept guessing Cardinal. I was a little confused until I remembered football, haha.

  • Haha 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, GracesWarbler said:

As for the state bird of Arizona, people kept guessing Cardinal. I was a little confused until I remembered football, haha.

Ahh football. The sport where I'd rather be looking for birds than watch it. Actually most sports are like that for me. Except for professional tag that I would love to see. Yeah, it’s a thing, google it and tell me what you find out because I have no idea how it’s played I just know it’s a thing.

Edited by Snake Fingers
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some new illustrations: a Scarlet Macaw, Blue-footed Booby, and Atlantic Puffin! I haven't seen any of these birds in the wild, but I'd like to. Especially the Blue-footed Booby.

I'm on the lookout for more photos to use! Do any of you have photos you'll let me trace for the coloring book? I'm most interested in bird behaviors (flying, hunting, etc.) as well as particular species: Bee Hummingbird, Eared Grebe, and Geese flying in a V formation.

Also, a question: I want the book to be for birders of all ages. Would a couple illustrations of birds hunting (e.g., a raptor with a fish in it's claws, or a heron with a fish) be too violent for a coloring book?

ScarletMacaw.png

BlueFootedBooby.png

AtlanticPuffin.png

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, GracesWarbler said:

Would a couple illustrations of birds hunting (e.g., a raptor with a fish in it's claws, or a heron with a fish) be too violent for a coloring book?

I would say it wouldn't be 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, GracesWarbler said:

I'm on the lookout for more photos to use! Do any of you have photos you'll let me trace for the coloring book? I'm most interested in bird behaviors (flying, hunting, etc.) as well as particular species: Bee Hummingbird, Eared Grebe, and Geese flying in a V formation.

Turkey Vultures have one of the best sense of smell of all birds.  Here are some of my photos you can use:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/63856091

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/319295141 

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/164357921

 

Oddly enough, my best picture of geese in a V formation consists of blue morph Snow Geese.  It's not a very detailed photo, though.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/15/2023 at 3:59 PM, Kevin said:

How is your book coming along?

It's going well! I have 24 illustrations done, and I want to add some text (to make it more of a bird book instead of just a coloring book), so I've been doing some reading. I'd like to talk about bird colors, flight, diversity, and whatever else I think is interesting. I still need to find more photos too!

Here are some new illustrations. Some of these will have text, which is why there are such large white spaces. I want to talk about the great sense of smell (and powerful stomach acid) of Turkey Vultures, and the page with the Bald Eagle and Osprey will probably be about birds of prey.  Thanks to @The Bird Nuts for letting me use the Vulture photos.

 

TurkeyVulture.png

BirdsOfPrey.png

PurpleMartins.png

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made a page about sexual dimorphism! (Don't look too closely at the text; I'll fact-check things later on.)

This demonstrates what I have in mind for the book. About half of the pages will simply be images, and the other half will introduce some interesting topic. What do you all think?

page_RedWingedBlackbirds.png

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/9/2023 at 5:15 PM, GracesWarbler said:

I made a page about sexual dimorphism! (Don't look too closely at the text; I'll fact-check things later on.)

This demonstrates what I have in mind for the book. About half of the pages will simply be images, and the other half will introduce some interesting topic. What do you all think?

page_RedWingedBlackbirds.png

I think it's awesome!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/9/2023 at 4:15 PM, GracesWarbler said:

I made a page about sexual dimorphism! (Don't look too closely at the text; I'll fact-check things later on.)

This demonstrates what I have in mind for the book. About half of the pages will simply be images, and the other half will introduce some interesting topic. What do you all think?

page_RedWingedBlackbirds.png

Looking good! 👍 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

By the way, does anyone have photos of interesting birds in Asia or Australia that I could use for the coloring book? I'd like the book to have at least one bird from each of the continents, and I'm missing those two.  Here's my wish list:

- An interesting bird from Asia

- An interesting bird from Australia

- Birds in the weather (rain, snow, heat, etc.)

- Birds circling in thermals

- Bee Hummingbird (smallest bird)

- Wandering Albatross (longest wingspan)

- Shoebill

- Peacock

Anyone have pictures of these that I could trace? I'll credit you in the back of the book!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

A new page for the coloring book: some birds in flight! There's a Great Blue Heron, a White-faced Ibis, and a Snowy Egret.

I've posted two compositions below. Any preference between them? In the first image, is it clear what the lines below the egret are?

WadingBirdsInFlight.png

WadingBirdsInFlight_alternate.png

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Kevin unpinned this topic

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...