hi new to bird forum (1 Viewer)

hi,

i'm a painter in new england who has just gone from painting cows to painting birds. even with photos i'm having trouble identifying birds. painting the bird is easy compared to identifying some of the species. if there are other bird painters here, could you give me a little advice on how to go about getting some of the birds identified especially in the flycatcher/phoebe type.

today's catch was the great blue heron and cedar waxwing. i got good shots for painting.

Hi again.

You've already seen how you can get answers in our Bird Identification Q&A section so that can always be a fall back for you The next thing I would suggest is getting a bird guide specifically geared to your area and become familiar with all the colored plates in the guide.

And finally, we have a very, very active Wildlife Art section and you'll get a lot of help here as well.

Hi BirdPictures!

We'd love to see some of your pieces, and a warm welcome to Bird Forum/sub-section/Art Forum...

The Sibley Guide should help you in your ID quests!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sibley_Guide_to_Birds

One of the best ways to learn bird identification is to go birding with someone who knows birds well. See if you can locate a local bird club or Audubon chapter and join in their field trips. Buy a good field guide, binoculars and go birding.

Sid

welcome to the art forum:t:...theres a friendly lot here, that will help you...lets have a look at your paintings...mark

Weclome to the art forum!
The above advice is all excellent and good bins and a good guide are essential, but I would add that it would help your id skills enormously if you were to draw the bird from life, in the field. When you are studying the creature very closely (as one must to make a likeness) you will beh=gin to notice much more about the bird than you would when 'just birdwatching' - sometimes these nuances will make you ask the salient question necessary to narrow down the id.
As Mark says - let's see some of your paintings, please?
PS - I wouldn't be worrying to much aout US flycatcher id - some of your 'brown' ones are proper b*ggers to seperate, even by the experts.

Lots of good advice here. From it all I'd say first and foremost is to draw from life. The reason for that is that even with a good guidebook like Sibley or even when out with a good group like a local Audubon chapter you're not forced to look as hard as you might. Drawing will help you to do that. You just see things, or in my case realize that you missed seeing things and then the bird flew, that you don't in any other way.

That type of knowledge then works with a guidebook or a good birding group to put everything together. This is a HARD way to do things, drawing from life, but if you keep at it you'll soon reap the rewards, both in IDing birds and in painting them.

One of the great values of local groups as Sid suggests is that they have an accumulation of local knowledge. I was on a bird census two weeks ago where someone saw a bird, looked it up in guide, and pronounced proudly that he'd found four Hermit Thrushes. Except that the people in the group who were experienced knew that Hermit Thrushes come through here but are not here in the summer, though they are further north. Of course there are always exceptions. But generally it would just be very unlikely. That's the type of thing that local birders know that might take you years to figure out on your own. And who knows you might meet some other bird artists as well!

another welcome! I can't add to the excellent advice already given, hope you'll post some of your work soon for us all to enjoy.

welcome....looking forward to seeing your work....

re the advice...all sound! As I'm new myself, must say the guides only do so much and it has been a LOT better to go out with other bird people who know their stuff...I've found I've made a lot of mistakes, but one thing I did was find an excellent local, who I could send my digi shots to and ask "what is this" saying where I took it, and she's been a gold mine...

Welcome along to the very best bit of BF. The others have all given great advice so I'll just say I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work here.

Mike