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New Convent Birds (1 Viewer)

ElenaL

Member
Hello All! Here's another group of mystery birds. I have really appreciated all the discussion around these and am learning a lot.

Here's a a repeat of the background on these paintings: These are artistic renderings from the Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa, Peru. This community was built in 1579 in the Andean Mountains and in a city with Spanish Colonial roots. It would be unusual to know when or who did these paintings, as decorative works were usually unnamed and anonymous. However, we do know that they often used local craftsmen (so Inca people) overseen by Spanish artists.

Around here and around this time, the European decorative art styles were used, but the local Inca people substituted their own flora and fauna. The Inca controlled a vast geographic region at this time, so they would be familiar with the Andes, but also the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Amazon region on the other.

These birds might be South American, but they also could be something from the hometown of a Spaniard. So, if a bird has you stumped, but seems somehow seems familiar to something European, you are probably right.


Here's a link to the source website that some of you all have been using: http://www.peruaves.org.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts.
 

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#3 is clearly an owl. Which one? Could be any, but my gut feel is one of the screech-owls. Too many of those in Peru to chose from.

#5 strikes me as a Hoatzin with that spiky head.

My last speculation is that #2 is a Fulvous Whistling Duck, that somebody "amended" after the fact to give it a huge bill. I suggest that because the black of the bill doesn't match the dark brown used for the outline of the rest of the bird.

#1 and #4: Don't know. Guan? Curassow?
 
My last speculation is that #2 is a Fulvous Whistling Duck, that somebody "amended" after the fact to give it a huge bill. I suggest that because the black of the bill doesn't match the dark brown used for the outline of the rest of the bird.

This speculation makes entire sense to me. I had a first look at the images a while ago, and something looked really odd about that bit (not only the shape). In my opinion there has been at least a second intervention over the original painting, in which the white background was "intensified" (painted over); this is well visible on the background around the body of the bird, including the head (it's whiter on those areas); at the same time, looking carefully, within the very dark blob that constitutes the bill area it is possible to discern what looks like a suggestion of a (darker) nostril and a contour that would match the shape of a duck's bill; these two observations suggest to me that the background around the head was originally darker (with little contrast on the bill area) and was painted over with white at a later stage (to make it "clearer", perhaps) creating this weird bill shape (almost like a Puffin's); the "original bill shape" (as I see it), is still visible as slightly paler than the blacker area that surrounds it. That's my interpretation of what I see.
As for a species suggestion Fulvous Whistling Duck could well be a good one.
 
#3 is clearly an owl. Which one? Could be any, but my gut feel is one of the screech-owls. Too many of those in Peru to chose from.

#5 strikes me as a Hoatzin with that spiky head.

My last speculation is that #2 is a Fulvous Whistling Duck, that somebody "amended" after the fact to give it a huge bill. I suggest that because the black of the bill doesn't match the dark brown used for the outline of the rest of the bird.

#1 and #4: Don't know. Guan? Curassow?

Agree 5. I wonder if 1 is a raptor given the wing shape.
 
Thanks Jeff! I too was wondering if we are looking at a hoatzin. And I really appreciate you looking beyond the artistic license on the duck (I actually have one hummingbird painting that clearly has a mustache and begs the question of who is depicted in that bird).
 
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