Hi, I'm Emily Willoughby. Scientific illustrator, paleoartist, writer, photographer. I am a Ph.D student in behavior genetics at UMN now so I don't really post here anymore, but I still lurk sometimes and like your posts.
A male great frigatebird, Fregata minor, inflating its unique gular pouch to impress the ladies. Frigatebirds are really interesting birds. I’ve had the opportunity to see several of them in the wild recently, though not in display (and magnificent, not great). They are incredibly lightly-built, epic soarers, and have the highest ratio of wing-area-to-body-mass (and the lowest wing loading) of any living bird. This means they can soar for hours while barely moving, staying perfectly in place, like giant, angular kites.
This was a belated gift for a good friend’s birthday, of her favorite animal - the Indian peafowl, Pavo cristatus. I wanted to paint the animal in a more naturalistic pose than is typical for the extravagant males, with his gorgeous train in view without being displayed. Here he sits on a branch and ponders the mysteries of existence as he overlooks his native florid Indian jungles.
I’ve been neglecting Tumblr a bit, but I do have lots of new things (with feathers) to share. After a very long wait, I’ve finally been given the go-ahead to share the bird paintings I did last year for the Shanghai Natural History Museum. This series, to be displayed in the museum’s newly-opened wing, includes nearly a hundred gouache paintings of Eurasian birds (and one dragonfly). So as not to overwhelm my followers, I’ll be posting a handful of my favorites one at a time. As our schedule was quite tight, each of these represents an average of 3-4 days of work.
This is a little tern in breeding plumage who has just caught a small fish. Comprising several subspecies, this small tern is endemic to Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
We three kings of avian are Migrant birds who travel afar. Fluff and feather, snowy weather, Pooping on yonder car.
This was my holiday card design this year! Featuring the belted kingfisher, eastern kingbird, and golden-crowned kinglet. Because who doesn’t love bird humor…
This card design is for sale! Please spread the word if you are or know a dorky-humor bird lover!
The mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos, is much overlooked by many bird enthusiasts due to its ubiquity, but the mallard is an interesting bird for a number of reasons. It’s one of the most widespread ducks on the planet, and has the unique ability to hybridize with a number of other members of the genus Anas, such as the American black duck and more distant relatives like the northern pintail. This unusual propensity for hybridizing and producing fully-fertile offspring is thought to be a consequence of the rapid and recent evolution of the mallard in the late Pleistocene. In fact, mallard bones appeared rather abruptly in the dietary remains of ice age humans, and mitochondrial DNA data suggest they evolved in the general area of Siberia.
Mallards are also notable for being the ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, with which they are also completely interfertile.
And another for the “ha! Feathered dinosaurs aren’t scary, you say?” sentiment that has been particularly salient lately with the release of some new film or other.
The golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos, is bar-none one of the most magnificent of all birds. Its huge size and fierce habits have made it especially well-known among birds of prey, and its ubiquity across the world has made it an icon of hypercarnivorous success. With a nearly 8-foot wingspan and extraordinarily strong grasping feet, the golden eagle’s predatory power is arguably unmatched by any extant bird.
As a paleoartist specializing in deinonychosaurs, its foot is of particular interest to me. Like all eagles and most accipitrids writ large, the second pedal ungual is hypertrophied, and this represents a fascinating point of convergence with the same hypertrophy in extinct dromaeosaurs. This similarity, combined with the short, stout, and remarkably robust metartarsus, has led to the inception of one of my favorite papers in modern paleontology, and to fascinating conclusions about predatory behavior in dromaeosaurs. To quote the paper in question, by the inimitable Denver Fowler and colleagues:
“It is important for extant predators to quickly subdue their victims, lest they escape or retaliate against their attacker. … To prevent escape of large prey the raptor pins its victim to the ground using its bodyweight, then plucks away feathers or fur, exposing an area of flesh. For immobilisation, falcons will quickly attempt to snap the spinal cord to kill the prey, but accipitrids lack the physical specializations for this. Instead, accipitrids possess hypertrophied talons on D-I and D-II which are adaptations for maintaining grip on large struggling prey. Accipitrids’ talons lock into their prey, keeping hold despite vigorous struggling, allowing the raptor to begin feeding. In such cases, death of the victim is hastened by massive bleeding from wounds sustained whilst being eaten alive.
An understanding of how foot morphology affects predatory ability in extant birds of prey can inform interpretations of similar variation observed in extinct non-avian theropods. … We suggest the enlarged D-II claws of deinonychosaurians were used to grapple prey in a fashion comparable to accipitrid birds of prey, and are part of a suite of features that indicate ecological separation within Deinonychosauria and Paraves.”
The golden eagle is referenced specifically for some of its unusually ghastly predatory strategies:
“Published accounts of this rare (indeed, disputed) behaviour are anecdotal, but the process by which golden eagles kill large prey is of interest. In most accounts, eagles form a tight fist with their feet, and stoop their prey, striking it at speed. Clearly, this behaviour is not possible for non-volant deinonychosaurians. However, rarer accounts record eagles ‘‘prey-riding’’; embedding their talons deep into the backs of their much larger prey and holding on as the victim’s vigorous retaliations serve only to widen the wounds. Prey-riding can be considered as an extension of the typical accipitrid predatory strategy for dealing with large prey, except that here the victim is too large to be pinned down by the raptor’s bodyweight. In order to prevent escape the raptor merely holds on with its hypertrophied talons. Some anecdotal sources suggest that piercing of internal organs by talons hastens the death of the victim. Experiment and observation has shown this to be unlikely. Instead, the victim is probably immobilized by weakening through exhaustion and/or loss of blood.”
Jurassic World’s overgrown scaly lizards have nothing on this magnificent bastard.
Next in my series of gouache paintings for the Shanghai Natural History Museum. The cinereous vulture, Aegypius monachus, is a large bird of prey endemic to central Asia and portions of Europe, where it is currently being reintroduced. As an Old World vulture, the cinereous is only distantly related to the vultures of the Americas, which have relatively similar coloration and habits. Old World vultures are members of Accipitridae, the familiar group of birds of prey which includes the hawks, harriers, eagles and kites. New World vultures, by contrast, are their own family (Cathartidae) which includes the condors.
This makes the cinereous vulture the largest true bird of prey in the world, with wingspans approaching 11 feet in length and with weights up to 31 pounds in the largest (female) individuals. Despite cursory similarities, Old and New World vultures are fundamentally different in a number of ways. Like other raptors, the cinereous vulture has extraordinarily good eyesight, which it uses to locate carrion (or other vultures circling it). The American vultures, by contrast, rely primarily on smell to locate meals. Old World vultures also show some of the predatory adaptations that evolution has honed to a fine point in other accipitrids: most notably remarkably strong bills and grasping taloned feet, which enable them to indulge in occasional predatory behaviors on top of scavenging.
The cinereous is currently listed as near-threatened due to poisoning (to control predators), carrion reduction (from improving standards for hygiene on farms), trapping and hunting, and habitat destruction. Recent reintroduction efforts in Europe have resulted in a mild but hopefully improving reversal.
This is an illustration I did for a local wildlife rescue center in Mercer county, New Jersey, for their annual spring fundraiser event invitation. This year it’s taking place at Baldpate Mountain at the Kuser Estate House, shown here amidst red-tails and cherry blossoms. Red-tailed hawks are pretty ubiquitous here, so I included a pair of those and a rabbit that’s probably enjoying its last spring morning.
I imagine Deinonychus as a highly opportunistic predator that would’ve attempted small prey whenever possible, much like modern wild canids and felids. Here it crashes into shallow water to snatch an eel.
Another graphite sketch on computer paper that began as a glorified doodle at a conference. I know, most of my uploads lately have been pencil drawings, but never fear, I have a big new paleoart painting to share at the end of the month!
