Birds of D.C. Watercolors
Birds of D.C. Watercolors
Naama Brown
Table of Contents
Introduction
American Crow: 1
American Goldfinch: 2
American Robin: 3
Blue Jay: 4
Common Starling: 5
Great Blue Heron: 6
Grey Catbird: 7
House Sparrow: 8
Mallard Duck: 9
Mourning Dove: 10
Northern Cardinal: 11
Northern Mockingbird: 12
Red-bellied Woodpecker: 13
Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 14
White Breasted Nuthatch: 15
Bibliography
Introduction
In creating this book there were two things that I wanted to share with the readers: my artistic progress and creations, and knowledge and appreciation of the birds in DC. Before this project, I had never worked with watercolors before. I had always been interested in them, so I took the chance to work with them for this project. With lots of practice and determination, I was able to teach myself how to paint with watercolors. It was a much more complex medium than I had realized, and I learned a lot through getting to know them. I really enjoy working with watercolors, and I’m excited to continue using them in the future.
In the summer of 2020, my family focused on learning about birds, especially the ones in the Washington, DC area. I learned so much that I didn’t know before, and since then I’ve really enjoyed being able to identify the birds that I see in my backyard and around the DC area. I wanted to share that knowledge with those who read this book, which is why I chose to paint the birds of DC. I didn’t paint every species of bird in DC, but I picked the ones that I thought were the most interesting and the ones that people tend to see most often. I then painted each bird and wrote summaries of important information about them. I hope you enjoy this book!
American Crow
Appearance: American crows are completely covered in black shiny feathers with black legs, eyes, and beaks.
Size: 16-20 inches
Habitat: Fields, forests, urban and suburban areas.
Location: United States, Canada, Mexico
Diet: Insects, seeds, scraps, grains, seeds, small fish and animals.
Fun Facts: American crows are very hard to distinguish from other birds such as ravens and European crows. The main thing to tell them apart by is their voice.
1
American Goldfinch
Appearance: Male American goldfinches are bright yellow on their back, chest, and stomach with an orange beak during the summer. During the winter, the parts that are normally yellow are a dull brown, and their beaks are grey. All year long they have black wings, a black stripe on their head, and black tails with white underparts. Females are mostly dull brown with hints of yellow and have grey wings and tails. During the summer they have slightly more yellow in their coat and have pink beaks. In the winter their beaks are grey.
Size: 4.5-5.5 inches
Habitat: Fields, gardens, parks.
Location: United States, Southern Canada, parts of Mexico.
Diet: Seeds, vegetation.
Fun Facts: Goldfinches can often be seen perched on flowers, eating the seeds from the middle.
2
American Robin
Appearance: American robins have dull brown backs and heads. Their bellies are a bright rusty orange. They have yellow/orange beaks and white markings around their eyes and under their chins, tails, and wings.
Size: 9-11 inches long
Habitat: Wooded, urban, and farmland areas.
Location: Canada, United States, Mexico
Diet: Insects and fruits/berries
Fun Facts: American robins were named after European robins because they both have orange breasts, but they are not actually closely related.
3
Blue Jay
Appearance: Blue jays have a variety of shades of blue along their back, head, wings, and tail, with the wings and tail being a brighter blue than the rest. The wings and tail have black stripes. Their faces and undersides are white. They have black beaks and black markings around their face.
Size: 9-12 inches
Habitat: Gardens, urban areas, wooded areas. Prefers oak, pine, and beech trees.
Location: Southern Canada, Eastern/Central United States.
Diet: Eats many things, including seeds, nuts, fruit, berries, meat, insects, grains, and bread.
Fun Facts: Blue jays are aggressive and territorial, and will often chase other birds away from food. Blue jays have a crest on their heads that move up and down depending on their mood.
4
Common Starling
Appearance: Common starlings are an iridescent black color that can look purple or green. Many of the small feathers covering their bodies are tipped with white or brown, making their stomachs look speckled. The white-tipped feathers are most visible in the winter. Their beaks are brown in the winter and yellow in the summer. Males have dark brown eyes while females have light brown or grey eyes.
Size: Around 8 inches
Habitat: Urban and suburban areas, parks, gardens, countryside.
Location: United States, Canada, Northern Mexico, Europe, Middle East, North Africa.
Diet: Insects, fruit, grain, seeds, scraps.
Fun Facts: Common starlings are good at mimicking noises and have very complex songs and noises that they make.
5
Great Blue Heron
Appearance: Great blue herons have light grey necks and heads and white faces. They have black feathers along the top and back of their heads. The feathers near the bottoms of their necks are longer than the rest. Their beaks are yellow-orange. The rest of their bodies are a darker blue-grey. The undersides of their wings are dark grey, visible when they are in flight. They have very long, skinny legs.
Size: 3-4.5 feet
Habitat: Grasslands, saltwater and freshwater areas such as lakes, swamps, and coasts.
Location: United States, Mexico, Southern Canada
Diet: Fish, insects, small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. They often impale larger prey with their sharp beaks before eating it.
Fun Facts: Even though great blue herons are so large, they only weigh about 5-6 pounds because of their hollow bones.
6
Grey Catbird
Appearance: Grey catbirds are light grey on most of their body. They have a dark grey patch on top of their heads. The ends of their tails also are darker grey. They have a small brownish-red patch underneath their tail. Their beaks are black.
Size: 8-9 inches
Habitat: Fields, forest edges, gardens.
Location: United States, Mexico, Canada
Diet: Berries, fruit, worms, insects.
Fun Facts: Grey Catbirds are named after a sound that they make that sounds like a cat’s meow.
7
House Sparrow
Appearance: Male house sparrows are grey on their undersides, and different shades of brown on their back, wings, and tail. They have a thick grey stripe along the top of their head and black and white markings on their face and throat. Females look similar but have no black, white, or grey markings on their faces. They generally have duller browns and greys on their body.
Size: 5-7 inches
Habitat: Cities, parks, gardens, urban areas, farmland.
Location: Every continent except Antarctica
Diet: Seeds, grain, scraps, insects
Fun Facts: House sparrows are the species of bird that are most widely distributed, mainly because they were introduced or brought to different places by humans.
8
Mallard Duck
Appearance: Male and female mallard ducks look very different from each other. Males have shiny green heads with a ring of white around their necks. They have brown chests and wings and a grey stomach. They have black feathers on their backsides and yellow beaks. Females are mostly different shades of mottled brown. They have a small black streak going across their eyes on the sides of their head. Their beaks are a darker yellow or brown than the males. Both males and females have dark blue and white streaks in the middle of their wings. Their legs and feet are orange.
Size: 20-26 inches
Habitat: Parks, lakes, ponds, rivers, coasts, wetlands.
Location: United States, Mexico, North Africa, parts of Europe and Asia, New Zealand, parts of Australia.
Diet: Seeds, roots, grass, seeds, insects, small aquatic life like tadpoles and small fish.
Fun Facts: The classic children's picture book "Make Way For Ducklings" features a family of mallard ducks living in Boston.
9
Mourning Dove
Appearance: The majority of their body is covered in shades of warm grey and brown. They have long, tapered tails, and their undersides are slightly pink. They have black spots on their wings and white feathers along the edge of their tail that are visible when in flight. They have small half-circle-shaped markings underneath their eyes. Males have some areas with slightly iridescent coloring while females only have grey and brown.
Size: 12 inches
Habitat: Suburban areas, woods, grassy areas, parks.
Location: United States, Mexico, Southern Canada.
Diet: Mainly seeds.
Fun Facts: Mourning doves are named for their sad “coo” that is often mistaken for an owl. When they take off and land their wings make a loud fluttering sound.
10
Northern Cardinal
Appearance: Male Northern Cardinals are bright red with black markings around their eyes, a crest on top of their head, and a red beak. Females are a dull brown color with red tinged wings, tail, and crest, and a red beak.
Size: 8-9 inches long
Habitat: Gardens/backyards, woods, parks, brush areas.
Location: Eastern United States, Southern Canada, Mexico, Northern Guatemala, Northern Belize.
Diet: Mainly seeds, grains, and fruit, but will also eat insects. Young cardinals mainly eat insects.
Fun Facts: Cardinals used to be a popular pet because of their bright color, but selling cardinals as pets was banned in the United States in 1918.
11
Northern Mockingbird
Appearance: Northern mockingbirds are grey on the top of their bodies and white underneath. They have large white bars on their wings that are visible when they are in flight. The ends of their wings and tail are darker grey than the rest of their body.
Size: 8-11 inches
Habitat: Gardens, fields, suburban areas, parks
Location: United States, Canada, Mexico.
Diet: Berries, fruit, worms, insects, seeds
Fun Facts: Mockingbirds are named for their ability to mimic other birds and sounds and are well known in pop culture, most notably in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
12
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Appearance: Red-bellied woodpeckers have a black and white striped pattern on their back and wings, and are light grey/white on their underside and chest. Males have a bright red strip along their heads; females have a smaller one that is broken in two by a grey patch. They both have dark grey beaks.
Size: 9-11 inches
Habitat: Forests, backyards.
Location: Eastern United States, parts of Canada.
Diet: Insects, nuts, seeds, fruit. Can find insects by drilling into trees with its beak. Red-bellied woodpeckers are known to store food from the fall to eat in the winter.
Fun Facts: Red-bellied woodpeckers have a misleading name, because although their bellies are slightly red, their head is the most brightly red colored part on them. There is another bird called a red-headed woodpecker, which looks very different.
13
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Appearance: Ruby-throated hummingbirds have green backs and green wings that are tipped with black. They have very long, thin bills. Males have a patch of iridescent red on their throats with a small black patch above it around their eyes. They have forked tails and their chests are white. Females are a dull green with a streaked white chest.
Size: 3-4 inches
Habitat: Gardens, lightly wooded areas, parks,
Location: Eastern United States and Southern Canada in the summer, Florida and Southern Mexico in the winter.
Diet: Small insects and nectar. They will drink from flowers while hovering next to them by sticking their bill and tongue into the middle of the flower.
Fun Facts: Ruby-throated hummingbirds can be easily attracted to backyards in DC during the summer by making or buying a hummingbird feeder and filling it with sugar water (four parts water to one part sugar). Within a few weeks of hanging it up, hummingbirds should start to visit your feeder.
14
White-breasted Nuthatch
Appearance: White-breasted nuthatches are pale grey on the top of their bodies and white on their chest, stomach, and face. They have a black cap on the top of their heads. The tips of their wings and tails have some black areas with white fringes.
Size: 5 inches
Habitat: Forests, suburban areas, parks, gardens, generally areas with trees.
Location: United States, Mexico, Southern Canada
Diet: Insects (summer), seeds (winter).
Fun Facts: There are nine subspecies of white-breasted nuthatches that change appearances gradually based on geography.
15
Bibliography
Sibley, David Allen. The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2nd Edition (Sibley Guides). 2nd ed., Knopf, 2014.
Bce_Admin_User. “Cornell Lab of Ornithology—Home.” Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 12 Mar. 2021, www.birds.cornell.edu/home.
“Audubon Guide to North American Birds.” Audubon, www.audubon.org/bird-guide. Accessed 16 Mar. 2021.
Wikipedia contributors. “Main Page.” Wikipedia, 3 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
Birds and Blooms. “Homepage.” Birds and Blooms, www.birdsandblooms.com. Accessed 16 Mar. 2021.