[Art] Black-Maned Liontail Bird of Paradise

[moonvoice]

The Black-Maned Liontail Bird of Paradise

On the rugged coastline of the Matako-Smith island, lives the rare black-maned liontail bird of paradise. The male is a strikingly coloured bird, but spends the majority of its life living in the similarly coloured stoneleaf tree, and so is frequently hard to spot, and well-camouflaged. Like all maned liontail birds of paradise, the female is drably coloured, with only a blush of red on her wings. The black-maned liontail is said to be possessed of a curse by locals, and unlike many other birds of paradise, he is not hunted for his feathers or his meat.

The maned liontails are related to the moon-sickles, but possess a unique physiological behaviour. Males grow a profuse, luscious ‘mane’ before every breeding season. The larger the mane, the more likely he is to secure a mate. Upon doing so, he allows the female to guide him back to her nest, where she plucks every individual mane feather to line her nest. The feathers increase the warmth for offspring, and in turn, the larger the mane; the larger the chance of survival during the cold, Winter months.

(part of the faux Bird of Paradise series)






ORIGINAL AVAILABLE at ETSY

PRINTS/PUZZLE/POSTCARDS/GREETING CARDS AVAILABLE at DEVIANTART

Comments

[ex_pale698]

I... wow. Speechless.

[white_rabbit]

Absolutely stunning. When you told me the pallet, I knew I would just love this. It's strangely warm. :)

[outlineofash]

Holy shit, this is awesome. I mean, I find all of your artwork awesome, but this one is especially striking to me. The color scheme is fantastic with the bright red and yellow against the muted browns and coppers... wow.

[scatteredshells]

That is fantastic! Amazing! Wonderful! :D I particularly enjoy the backstory for these creatures as well. Beautiful. The pallet is gorgeous.

[ariestess]

Oh, I like this almost muted color scheme. It's gorgeous, and the golds really stand out.

[sundog]

The gradients involved with this piece have me drooling. Gorgeous work!

[elialshadowpine]

Gorgeous!

[toeknuckles]

What beautiful, beautiful colours. Geez...is it even possible for you to do stuff I DON'T love?

[hrafn]

Oh, wow! The colors are so rich! He's a gorgeous bird, and the subtle/rich color scheme is wonderful :)

[delladea]

Such beautiful, rich coloring. Gorgeous!

[silverjackal]

Oh this is beautiful. I really like the somewhat unconventional colour palette (by modern Wester terms at least). The bronzes and coppers are very handsome. Your affinity for birds also shows very clearly in this. :)

[amethystfirefly]

oh, this is wonderful.

[silere]

Yaaay! I looove your birds of paradise. this is gooorggeous. <3 And the plucking-the-mane-feathers bit is just wonderful. makes more sense than some of the epic feather displays birds go through.

[urbanimal]

I am running out of words to describe how awesome your work is. :)

[paleo]

This is amazing! It must be so shimmery irl.

[lupagreenwolf]

For some reason, the leaves are really popping out at me. I think it's the stippling on the veining, actually. But the overall shape is awesome. I'd love to see one of those turned into a pendant somehow.

[bodlon]

I love how warm and rich this is. Brazen in the metallic sense almost.

[shimmerhawk]

Oh wow, I don't know what it is about this image, but I LOVE it. Great job.