Primrose Beauty

Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches

     A female Scarlet Tanager visited my yard this past May and provided an opportunity for some great photos which were used as reference for this painting. Usually, I spot them during the fall migration. 
     One of the biggest characteristics of this bird is that it looks nothing like its bright, red, male counterpart. This trait is known as sexual dichromatism. It’s obvious the naming of this bird was born from observing the males versus females. 
     Scarlet Tanagers are known to exhibit active anting behavior whereby they'll pick up ants with their beaks and rub them on their feathers. It’s believed that formic acid contained in specific ant species helps deter ectoparasites such as bird lice. Two ants, Lasius (Acanthomyops) claviger and Lasius (Chthonolasius) umbratus, have been observed in use by Scarlet Tanagers. With over 12,000 species of ants in the world, one might surmise there are more species of ants being used in this way, although not all ants contain formic acid. 
     A quick comment about the title of this work. When my Potentilla Fruticosa ‘Primrose Beauty’ (Bush Cinquefoil) bloomed a couple weeks ago, the light yellow petals bore a close resemblance to this bird’s feathers. So, even though Primrose Beauty is the name of a deciduous shrub, I thought it worked for the painting, too. 
     Stay wild, my friends!


References

Banks, Shannon. (2022, Dec. 12) How many ants live on Earth? At least 20 quadrillion, scientists say. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/how-many-ants-live-on-earth-at-least-20-quadrillion-scientists-say/

Duncan, Stewart (1976). Anting by a Scarlet Tanager and Two Blue Jays in Massachusetts. Bird Banding 47(1), Article 18.

Groskin, Horace (1943). Scarlet Tanagers “Anting.” The Auk, 60(1), 55–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/4079311

Kricher, J. (2020). Peterson Reference Guide to Bird Behavior. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.


Copyright notification: The internet is a scary place. I have seen my artwork on unauthorized websites. This is called stealing, also known as copyright infringement. The only authorized websites allowed to display my artwork are www.beccamulenburg.com, www.beccamulenburg.blogspot.com, and galleries currently showing my work. Any other website, posting, sales of my work, or the like, is illegitimate and operating under copyright infringement which is against the law. This includes Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon (worldwide), and more. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. Please be aware. Copyrights do not transfer with the sale of any of my artworks.

Location: Duluth, MN 55811, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Beginning of the End

Image
Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches Copyright notification: The internet is a scary place. I have seen my artwork on unauthorized websites. This is called stealing, also known as copyright infringement. The only authorized websites allowed to display my artwork are www.beccamulenburg.com, www.beccamulenburg.blogspot.com, and galleries currently showing my work. Any other website, posting, sales of my work, or the like, is illegitimate and operating under copyright infringement which is against the law. This includes Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon (worldwide), and more. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. Please be aware. Copyrights do not transfer with the sale of any of my artworks.
Read more

Days Like This

Image
Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches      This is a black and white (sort of) oil painting of an Eastern Phoebe. A trip to William O’Brien State Park last September brought windy and hot conditions for a six-mile birding walk. I spotted this bird along the Wedge Hill Savanna Trail perched on a branch over water, sallying for bugs.       I remember that day well. It was too windy for decent birding, and the temperatures were between 76-80˚ F. For me, that’s hot; and without the wind, I wouldn’t have walked as far as I had. Oftentimes, when I see a bird by itself, especially during migration, I often wonder about its circumstances. Eastern Phoebes leave Minnesota for warmer climes in the fall. How far would this one travel? Why was it alone? Was it a male or female? Was it cursing the wind like I was? Perhaps bugs were easier to catch on windy days. Maybe they have less control in the wind, making them easier prey. Or maybe they’re harder to find, hunkered down o...
Read more

Crossing Paths

Image
Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches            Last year, Red Crossbills visited my feeders containing black oil sunflower seeds between May 15 and May 28th. Those sightings remain the only time I've seen these perfectly-named birds.       Compared to most birds, there’s a lot more to learn about Red Crossbills. The following paragraph taken from allaboutbirds.org [accessed Feb. 10, 2025] summarizes this bird well.       "Traditionally considered a single species of multiple races, Loxia curvirostra may actually comprise more than half a dozen separate species—each of them showing a mix of traits so close to the others that they are inseparable in the field. Even taxonomists with specimens in the hand are often uncertain of what they have. Birds of different bill sizes and shapes apparently prefer different conifer species (the smallest types feeding on hemlocks, the largest on white pines), but the differences must be measur...
Read more