We have many of these little birds nesting in the hedge at the back of the yard. I don’t know how many times they breed per season, but there are always a few fledglings trying out our daily feast.

I’ve done a couple of other portraits of this bird, but I think I got him better this time. This is the first time I got both the body shape and the beak’s length proportionate. They come in two colors — with or without a rosy stomach. This one was all white underneath, but we have a lot of them with a rose-pink (or half rose-pink) tummy. I don’t know if the two color interbreed or are separate sub-species.

That hedge was originally a flowering forsythia. It’s now so overgrown it rarely throws a blossom, but it’s so full of birds’ nests, not to mention woodchucks and a few chipmunks, we can’t cut it back.

We can’t cut back the now-huge mistletoe shrub in front of the house either. It’s taller than many trees, but again, full of nesting birds, especially robins. I’m pretty sure the wild things are our rulers. That’s okay. I like them a lot better than other so-called “rulers” in this country. Birds just need food and a place to nest. In return, the are beautiful and free, if rather messy.

Categories: #Birds, #Sketchbook, Arts, Drawings

Tags: #Sketchbook, Arts, birds, Drawings, Marilyn Armstrong, Tufted Titmouse