All About Birds, Part 4
—House Finches, Western Screech-Owls, Rufous-winged Sparrows & a Special Guest
Today’s post continues my bird mini-series and features three species of birds plus a Special Guest! Not surprisingly, butterflies and plants make appearances as well. 😁
First, here’s my Perpetual Journal page featuring a House Finch, which we see pretty much year-round in our yard. We also hear House Finches’ warbling songs quite often in our yard.
You see that my 2024 PJ art on that page was of a 🥰 Queen Butterfly 🥰 eclosing from its chrysalis! So far in 2025, Hubby & I have been honored with 19(!!!) Queen Butterflies eclosing from their chrysalises on our Milkweeds! For the visually-oriented amongst us, that’s this many:
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
SO exciting!!! I bow to, and thank, each and every Queen Butterfly for gracing our yard with its presence!
Now—back to House Finches.
🧐 A Fun Fact about House Finches
Male House Finches’ red color comes from pigments in its food (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly). That means the more pigment in the food, the redder the male.
You can learn more about House Finches at All About Birds.
Here’s my Perpetual Journal page from a few weeks later, featuring a Western Screech-Owl (WSO) in our owl box, as recorded by our new nest box camera!
🧐 A Fun Fact about Western Screech-Owls
Western Screech-Owls are small (7.5-9.8'“/19-25 cm) but will occasionally take larger prey, including cottontail rabbits. They’ve also been seen eating bats!
You can learn more about Western Screech-Owls at All About Birds.
Speaking of nest cams, we had a Special Guest poke its head into our owl box. Can you identify our Special Guest?
If you said “Gila Woodpecker”, you’re correct! 👍 Mr. Gila can easily be identified by his red beanie. Female Gila Woodpeckers don’t sport red beanies, though.
You can learn more about Gila Woodpeckers at All About Birds.
🧐 A Fun Fact about Gila Woodpeckers
My nickname for Gila Woodpeckers is “Squeakies” because to me a Gila Woodpecker’s call sounds like a squeaky toy.
Here’s my next PJ featuring a bird—a Rufous-winged Sparrow—with a depiction of its song, plus common bird calls that I illustrated in 2023.
My art of our Rufous-winged Sparrow friend is the first art in my Perpetual Journal for which I incorporated techniques practiced in my recent Lost and Found Lines art class. See how I defined the Sparrow’s breast using only color instead of a line? And how I utilized broken lines on the back of its head to indicate feathers? And how I drew the branch with thin & broken lines to de-emphasize the branch? These were all conscious choices that resulted from taking that art class.
🧐 A Fun Fact about Rufous-winged Sparrows
Our summer monsoon kicks off the breeding season for Rufous-winged Sparrows. These Sparrows are so tied to rainfall for breeding that if winter rains are heavy, they may nest again the following spring.
You can learn more about Rufous-winged Sparrows at All About Birds, and hear a recording of a Rufous-winged Sparrow’s melodious song, that I depicted in my PJ.
I recently read The Bird Way: a New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think by Jennifer Ackerman and this comment of hers resonated with me:
“Writing this book has changed the way I see birds, given me a new pair of binoculars, so to speak.”
- Jennifer Ackerman
What Ackerman describes mirrors my experience studying and illustrating birds. I love her analogy of a new pair of binoculars. Creating art of birds has certainly given me a new appreciation, deeper knowledge, and new way of seeing these bird species (and all birds in general)!
You can leave a comment or ask a question…
…and if you’ve enjoyed this, please share this post with friends, family and the world! 😃
So many intriguing observations and interpretation of nature. Thank you for sharing!