Sunday, September 8, 2019

Birds of Australia Coloring Pages

NOTE:  These are some of the drawings that I did in pencil, while on the bus tour mostly.  So they were done in pencil.  I have a lot more I need to finish, even though we have been back home for over a month.  The printable versions are found by clicking on the top buttons.  



Dromornis stirtoni

This bird was one of the biggest birds ever to live on Earth.  They went exticnt around 40,000 years ago.  They were NOT  hunted to extinction by Man.  This is impossible because there is evidence that the Aborignes came to Australia possibly as early as 60,000 years ago. . . and this bird went extinct 5 million years ago.   This bird was 10 feet or 9.8 meters tall.  It weighed around 1430 lbs or 650 kg.  We are not sure if it ate plants or meat.  It may have been a fruit eater.  We saw its model at the Mega Fauna Center in Alice Springs. . . . and the plaque said it was a fruit eater.  However, some paleontologists think it may have been a predator or perhaps an omnivore.  So it may have eaten both plants and scavanged carrion. . . or maybe hunted smaller birds or small mammals.  


Dromornis stirtonis photo from Mega Fauna Center in Alice Springs, NT. Australia



Australian Pelicans
Australian Pelicans are beautiful and very large flying birds.  We saw them both at a zoo and in the wild while in Australia.  They have a wingspan of 2.5 meters or about 8 feet.  They feed on fish and have a pouch as part of their bill feeding apparatus.  


Australian Pelican photos from Adilaide Zoo

Australian Pelicans (and several other birds) on the Yellow River, Kakadu National Park




Jabiru or Black Necked Stork
The Jabiru or Black Necked Stork is a large bird ..a wader, from the South Pacific region of the world, including Australia.  There is also a Jabiru or species of large stork in the Americas, but that is a different species of  bird.  Both makes and females of the Black Neck Stork or Australian Jabiaru look idential at first.  They have glossy black and white feathers but the irises of the eyes are different.  Males have brown eyes and females have yellow eyes.  Adults have a glossy blue-black head and neck.  Those feathers are iridescent.  The wingspan of the adult is 230 cm. or 91 inches.  
b

Jabiru or Black Necked Stork in the Yellow River, Kakadu National Park
Above photos copyright Robin A. Lyman 2019



Spinifex Pigeon
The Spinifex Pigeon has the large unusual crest.  It the size of a normal pigeon.  However it has some amazing face painting.   It also has some wing stripes.   Spinifex is a sharp tangled grass that is quite common in the Outback.  


Spinafex Pigeon via mdahlem.net


Crested Pigeon
The Crested Pigeon looks a lot like the Spinifex Pigeon, except the Crested Pigoen lacks the cool face paint.  So Crested Pigeons are a little more boring looking, although that cool crest is impressive to me.  They are both regular pigeon sized birds.  I should note that the two pigoen are the only photos from today's post that were not taken by me.  


Crested Pigeon photo via Wikipedia


Artists and Blog Author's Note:  I will now re-post some other drawings of birds of Australia that I posted previously.  All drawings on today's blog were done by me and are copyrighted by Robin A. Lyman 2019.  Permission to print pictures for the purpose of coloring is granted but not for commercial purposes.   So you can't sell my drawings.  They are free to everyone.  But if you work with kids or have kids or other people who want to color my drawings then that is very acceptable.  
F.Y.I. almost all the drawings on this blog were done by me.  We are approcaching 800 drawings, I think.  Anyway, here are few more birds of Australia that I posted previously.  

Wedge-tailed Eagle Soaring

Wedge-tailed Eagle feeding on dead Wallaby


Wedge-tailed Eagle flying Low


Budgerigar or Parakeet

Cockatoo



Robins of Australia 2 of the 49 species




Emu in the Outback



Cassowary
(These last two are the 2nd and 3rd biggest birds still on Earth.  Both are flightless.)

No comments:

Post a Comment