{"id":34734,"title":"The Story of Mr Finch","description":"Exploring the story of the finch and their close relations.","content":"

\"3btquomxm5gt6y5syzfmknt5xlnviw2epnje1mvejwlcj65w.jpeg.jpeg?w=1140&v=2\"What\u2019s Not a Finch\u2026<\/h3>

As an artist that\u2019s been seriously drawing and gently referencing birds for the past three years, one might assume I know a thing or two about birds. I guess I might know a little more than the average man about town, though I still have a lot to learn. There are an estimated 10,000 different species of birds on earth, I don\u2019t expect that I will get round to drawing them all. I\u2019ve so far chosen to draw the ones I know and love and some that have been suggested by you, dear reader. This year I have been determined to take more time on each bird and learn some interesting facts about them, I write about what I\u2019ve learned on this here blog<\/u><\/a>. If you have ever taken a passing glance at the blog you\u2019ll know that I\u2019m fascinated by the history of the naming of the birds that surround us.<\/p>

\"2txqd07dkrvqjbc0mjrrgodcbktfnwrffnleldpxvc0d0ynj.jpg.jpg?w=1140&v=2\"One such bird I\u2019ve taken a look at is the Yellowhammer (above). I drew and gently referenced this in the early days of Birds Can Fly, in my recent mission to tidy up my A-Z of Birds Range<\/u><\/a> I wanted to rethink some of the corresponding letters and rejuvenate some of the previous illustrations and I wanted to know a little more about some of them too, so I\u2019ve recently been looking again at this lovely little bird and it\u2019s \u2018finchiness\u2019. When I researched the yellowhammer, I was reminded that it\u2019s not categorised as a finch<\/em><\/strong> at all, it\u2019s from the bunting<\/em><\/strong> family. I went a little further on my journey learning more about how humans have decided to categorise and name our birds. <\/p>

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\"mutbcwla6injw62udyjzrcl37wpa3lkuz6eyb2x5rydigvbm.jpg.jpg?w=1140&v=2\"(The above gentle reference was inspired by Edith Piaf. In 1935 she was discovered by Louis Lepl\u00e9e, a cabaret owner, who gave her her first nightclub job. It was Lepl\u00e9e who began calling her \u201cla m\u00f4me piaf,\u201d Parisian slang for \u201clittle sparrow,\u201d in a reference to her size, she was under 5 feet. I adore subtle little layers of reference often lost on the first viewing.)<\/em><\/p>

The yellowhammer and the sparrow above are very<\/em><\/strong> visually similar to me, as an artist I\u2019m studying their plumage and bills and appearance, though it\u2019s their behaviour and habitat that differentiate them and informs this naming process.<\/p>

The finch, yellowhammer, bunting and the house sparrow (above) are all known as \u2018perching birds\u2019 and are categorised as \u2018passerines\u2019\u2026 \u201cPasseriformes; from Latin passer 'sparrow' and formis '- shaped'), this order includes more than half of all <\/em><\/strong>bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their toes (three pointing forward and one back), which facilitates perching. With more than 140 families and some 6,500 identified species, Passeriformes is the largest order of birds and among the most diverse clades of terrestrial vertebrates, representing 60% of birds. Passerines are divided into three clades: Acanthisitti (New Zealand wrens), Tyranni (mostly-South American suboscines), and Passeri (oscines or songbirds). The passerines contain several groups of brood parasites such as the viduas, cuckoo-finches, and the cowbirds. Most passerines are omnivorous, though shrikes are carnivorous, and others are insectivorous.\u201d<\/p>

Source.<\/u><\/a><\/p>

This wasn\u2019t a shock to me, but I hadn\u2019t quite processed this information, such is the way my weird little mind works. If like me you learn more easily from hearing than reading then the video below digs very deep into the the evolution of the \u2018Passerine\u2019 and the detail of how the order spread across the globe. After watching this lecture I was surprised to understand that ornithology continues to be such a live and evolving subject, their definition continues to be clarified.<\/p>