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Portrait of Hawk-headed Parrots

by Ria Winters

The first time I saw Hawk-headed parrots, which is about ten years ago, I was suprised by their appearance. They looked very different from all other parrots I had ever seen. It almost looked like their heads did not fit with the rest of their body. But the colours of the crest and the almost fluorescent green of the wings are stunning.
I made some quick shots and only later I learned that they were "Kraagpapegaaien" as we call them in Dutch: Parrots with a collar.
This is one of the photographs I made then:



Being such a excellant subject I have painted them several times .
The scientific name is Deroptyus accipitrinus.
There is just a single member in the genus Deroptyus, with two subspecies: Deroptyus accipitrinus and Deroptyus fuscifrons. The latter differs from the the more well-known D.accipitrinus because it's forehead and crown are a dusky brown with narrow white streaking.
The accipitrinus subspecies are found along the Amazon basin north of the river and up into southern Venezuela.
The fuscifrons subspecies are found south of the Amazon River going down into northern Brazil.



Hawk-Headed Parrots generally live in undisturbed forest, feeding in the canopy on fruits. It nests in holes in trees and stumps, laying two to three eggs. Only two nests have been examined in the wild, both had one chick. It is not considered threatened and let's hope it stays that way.

Hawk-headed parrots are also called Red-fan Parrot and are the only psittacines other than cockatoos that have a crest they can control.

The painting below is a private commission.
They have a dramatic appearance and that's what I tried to capture.

Posted by Ria Winters on 02/27 at 10:57 AM
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Rodrigues Parakeet

by Ria Winters

My first new year blog is about the Rodrigues Parakeet, also called Newton's Parakeet or Exiled Ring-Necked Parakeet, Latin name: Psittacula exsul. It is an extinct species endemic to the forests of the island of Rodrigues which is the third Mascarene Island besides Mauritius and Reunion.
It was about 40 cm (16 inches) long and mostly a slate greyblue colour which is unusual for its genus, which are otherwise mostly green parrots.
Early reports suggest that it may have hade two colour morphs, One slate blue and the other green but whether the green coloration was borne by recently-fledged birds, or whether at one time a short-lived colony of a related green species that was living on Rodrigues was for long not determinated. Nowadays it is assumed that the Rodrigues Parakeet was a green species and the blue birds were a colour morph.

It was first recorded by François Leguat, the leader of a group of eight French Huguenots who colonised Rodrigues from 1691 to 1693. He said that the parrot was abundant and reported that they fed mainly on nuts of an olive-like tree. He also said that they were good to eat and able to imitate speech. One tamed by them spoke French and Flemish.

Several nineteenth-century visitors mentioned the bird but it was not until the 1870s that specimens reached Europe and the species was described by A. Newton in 1872. He gave the epithet exsul, "exiled" to the latin name in referrence to the refugee Leguat and his exiled Huguenots who mentioned the bird first.
The last recorded sighting was in 1875 and it seems probable that the last few birds were wiped out in the year when the island suffered the worst cyclonic season of the ninetheenth centory with four cyclones in two months, the last - on 27th February 1876 - being one of the most severe of all time.

Only two complete specimens, one male and one female, survive and they are both in the Cambridge University Museum.
The species' extinction was presumably caused by a combination of habitat loss and hunting.
This painting is a one of a series that is going to be made in the project "Not the way of the Dodo - Endangered species of Mauritius". One part of the project is portraying extinct species of the Mascarene Islands. The parrot paintings that appear in this project will of course find their way to the WPT bloggers page!

Posted by Ria Winters on 01/04 at 11:20 AM
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Levaillant and African Greys

by Ria Winters

I don't live far from Amsterdam and have close access to zoological and ornithological book collections that are in the Artis Library and in the Zoological museum of the University of Amsterdam.
Both have old and rare books. I visit these libraries to acquire information about extinct parrot species.
The last time I was at the Artis Library I looked at the two 'Perroquets' books of Levaillant.

Francois Levaillant (1753-1824) was a French explorer and ornithologist. In 1805 he published two large books with beautiful colour copper engravings of parrots done by another well known ornithologist of that time, Jacques Barraband.
While looking for something else I came across plates of African grey parrots. They caught my eye because I'm working on an African Grey painting.
Most of Levaillant's descriptions were from captive birds or stuffed specimens. With every colour plate there is a story and it seems that he lets his own personal view on each bird prevail over extensive scientific research which makes the books special, even curious. Of the African Greys he portrays the 'normal' Congo African Grey with
what he calls "three varieties". The first 'variety' is an African Grey with red streaks (in his text he mentiones red streaks but the image shows a lot of red).




The second is what he calls a "Black African Grey", which looks to me like a Timney.




The third 'variety' is a bird with a yellow tail. From his story (all in French ...) I understand that this was a bird of over sixty years old and that it's red tail changed
feather by feather to a yellow tail.



(Image credits: photographed with the kind permission of the Artis Library, University of Amsterdam.)

I have never heard of African Greys with red streaks or of yellow tails.
A result in Google tells me that the yellow tail may be a sign of a health problem.
I was wondering if anyone has any comments on these two 'varieties': is or was there an African Grey subspecies with red streaks and can African Greys have yellow tails?

Finally, here is my oil painting of three African Greys, two adults and one immature.

Posted by Ria Winters on 11/09 at 10:35 AM
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Portrait of Spix’s Macaw

by Ria Winters

Introduction: first blog of an artist

This is my first blog and I’m glad to be here (thanks WPT for inviting me as a blogger). I’m an artist and specialized in painting parrots. In my blogs I will try to give an artist’s point of view on parrots, how they inspire me and how I paint them.
I will upload a blog every three or four weeks, highlighting a different painting every time.
From an early age I have drawn and painted; my subjects were always about nature. I’m mainly self thought but I have received private training that has enhanced my techniques. I have traveled a lot (Kenya, South Africa, Spitsbergen, Mexico, U.S.A., Egypt, Ireland); future travels will also appear on this blog. I have yet to make a study trip to observe parrots in the wild; the first opportunity to do this is in May 2009 when I will travel to Mauritius to observe the Echo Parakeet for a special project. But more about that later.

This first blog is about the Spix’s macaw. I have always been intrigued by species that are rare or even extinct. It is like giving them a new life when putting their feathers and eyes on a painting. I also hope that paintings like these will attract people’s attention and raise awareness for the fragility and importance of nature.

I have never seen a Spix’s macaw in reality but I have gathered reference material from photographs of friends who have seen them in Tenerife and from television and books.
What I find striking about this bird are the different hues of blue and the difference in appearance between the adults and the juveniles. The inspiration lies in rendering the blue as well as possible and making a unique portrait of this special parrot species.

Posted by Ria Winters on 10/21 at 01:49 AM
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