Field Guide : Splendid Sunbird (Male)
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
The male splendid sunbird’s color column provided me with a splendid challenge.
Online and in field guides, you often come across simple descriptions of the bird’s plumage color like this one, from Wikipedia: “The adult male is mainly glossy purple, with a dark green back and wing bar, and a crimson breast patch.” To get to glossy purple, dark green, and crimson, you have to do a lot of boiling down. Like most sunbirds, this fellow has iridescence aplenty, and iridescence is always tricky to average out in neutral light, an important part of creating a Field Guide color column. Rest assured, I’ve done my utmost. Instead of a simple “glossy purple,” I found violet, purple, ultramarine blue, indigo, a pastel magenta, and more. Instead of “dark green,” I turned up forest green, a minty chartreuse, and an aquamarine teal. Even the “crimson” is more of a scarlet and vermillion in neutral light. The resulting color column is intriguing, with the darker parts of the bird’s plumage dominating the top half, and his punchy iridescence making up the smaller-percentage color bars below.
The splendid sunbird inhabits the tropical forests of West and Central Africa. Although the adults prefer nectar above all other foods, they have a diverse diet, including sap, seeds, insects, and spiders. When feeding their young, insects feature more prominently on the sunbird menu – some for you, some for me. Many people mistakenly think sunbirds are related to hummingbirds. This association is understandable; they both have colorful, iridescent plumage, long beaks, and a diet that prioritizes nectar. These similarities, though, are not a sign of close relationship. Instead, they indicate convergent evolution; the birds look and behave in similar ways because they’ve developed similar adaptations. In fact, while sunbirds generally perch when they drink nectar from a flower, they can also hover as they feed, like hummingbirds! Still, physical and behavioral similarities not withstanding, the two groups are not at all closely related.
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
The male splendid sunbird’s color column provided me with a splendid challenge.
Online and in field guides, you often come across simple descriptions of the bird’s plumage color like this one, from Wikipedia: “The adult male is mainly glossy purple, with a dark green back and wing bar, and a crimson breast patch.” To get to glossy purple, dark green, and crimson, you have to do a lot of boiling down. Like most sunbirds, this fellow has iridescence aplenty, and iridescence is always tricky to average out in neutral light, an important part of creating a Field Guide color column. Rest assured, I’ve done my utmost. Instead of a simple “glossy purple,” I found violet, purple, ultramarine blue, indigo, a pastel magenta, and more. Instead of “dark green,” I turned up forest green, a minty chartreuse, and an aquamarine teal. Even the “crimson” is more of a scarlet and vermillion in neutral light. The resulting color column is intriguing, with the darker parts of the bird’s plumage dominating the top half, and his punchy iridescence making up the smaller-percentage color bars below.
The splendid sunbird inhabits the tropical forests of West and Central Africa. Although the adults prefer nectar above all other foods, they have a diverse diet, including sap, seeds, insects, and spiders. When feeding their young, insects feature more prominently on the sunbird menu – some for you, some for me. Many people mistakenly think sunbirds are related to hummingbirds. This association is understandable; they both have colorful, iridescent plumage, long beaks, and a diet that prioritizes nectar. These similarities, though, are not a sign of close relationship. Instead, they indicate convergent evolution; the birds look and behave in similar ways because they’ve developed similar adaptations. In fact, while sunbirds generally perch when they drink nectar from a flower, they can also hover as they feed, like hummingbirds! Still, physical and behavioral similarities not withstanding, the two groups are not at all closely related.
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
The male splendid sunbird’s color column provided me with a splendid challenge.
Online and in field guides, you often come across simple descriptions of the bird’s plumage color like this one, from Wikipedia: “The adult male is mainly glossy purple, with a dark green back and wing bar, and a crimson breast patch.” To get to glossy purple, dark green, and crimson, you have to do a lot of boiling down. Like most sunbirds, this fellow has iridescence aplenty, and iridescence is always tricky to average out in neutral light, an important part of creating a Field Guide color column. Rest assured, I’ve done my utmost. Instead of a simple “glossy purple,” I found violet, purple, ultramarine blue, indigo, a pastel magenta, and more. Instead of “dark green,” I turned up forest green, a minty chartreuse, and an aquamarine teal. Even the “crimson” is more of a scarlet and vermillion in neutral light. The resulting color column is intriguing, with the darker parts of the bird’s plumage dominating the top half, and his punchy iridescence making up the smaller-percentage color bars below.
The splendid sunbird inhabits the tropical forests of West and Central Africa. Although the adults prefer nectar above all other foods, they have a diverse diet, including sap, seeds, insects, and spiders. When feeding their young, insects feature more prominently on the sunbird menu – some for you, some for me. Many people mistakenly think sunbirds are related to hummingbirds. This association is understandable; they both have colorful, iridescent plumage, long beaks, and a diet that prioritizes nectar. These similarities, though, are not a sign of close relationship. Instead, they indicate convergent evolution; the birds look and behave in similar ways because they’ve developed similar adaptations. In fact, while sunbirds generally perch when they drink nectar from a flower, they can also hover as they feed, like hummingbirds! Still, physical and behavioral similarities not withstanding, the two groups are not at all closely related.
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.