Printables: Draw a Common Starling
Plus: A fun and easy technique for those iridescent feathers
It seemed like a good idea at the time. In 1890 there was a large organization dedicated to introducing “such foreign varieties of the animal and vegetable kingdom as may be useful or interesting.” Amateur ornithologist and wealthy businessman Eugene Schieffelin was an enthusiastic member of this American Acclimatization Society; thirty years earlier he had released the first house sparrows and he was delighted that they were thriving. In fact, sparrows were everywhere. What could possibly be the harm in that?
Now Mr. Schieffelin was ready to make his second contribution to the nation’s bird population. On a sunny morning in early spring, he released 60 noisy starlings in New York’s Central Park and watched them fly away. Just to be on the safe side, he released 40 more a few months later.
His attempts to introduce bullfinches, chaffinches, nightingales, and skylarks were not successful… but starlings certainly made up for that. Today there are more than 93 million on the North American continent and they are classified as extremely invasive. Despite their reputation for displacing native songbirds and eating farm crops, they are beautiful birds and wonderful drawing subjects.
In today’s illustrated printables, sketch a starling from our licensed reference photos and then learn a simple trick for creating iridescent sheen on those glossy feathers:
