Shantell Powell

What is a bird?

• According to Merriam Webster, a bird is "any of a class (Aves) of warm-blooded vertebrates distinguished by having the body more or less completely covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as wings."
  

What makes a bird a bird?

• Birds are vertebrates.
  
• Birds have feathers.
  
• Birds have wings.
  
• Birds have bills.
  
• Birds are warm-blooded.
  
• Birds have high metabolisms.
  
• Birds are bipedal.
  
• Birds have a furcula (wishbone).
  
• Birds lay eggs.
  
• Birds communicate verbal and nonverbal sounds.
  
• Birds migrate.
  
• (From What is a bird?)
  

Who have they inspired?

• Charles Darwin began developing the theory of evolution after observing pigeons. Darwin’s Other Bird—The Domestic Pigeon
  

• The Wright Brothers spent a lot of time observing birds in flight. History of Flight - The Wright Brothers
  

• Jayson Fann creates "spirit nests" inspired by the nests of birds. Californian tree nests: Inspired by birds, built for people
  

Peregrination to Toronto

On Saturday, September 9, 2017, I travelled to the University of Toronto's Biodiversity Teaching Lab to draw and photograph biological specimens. I was immediately attracted to the cabinets filled with birds and bird parts.

Here are some of the specimens I photographed:












I set up a work station and chose some specimens to draw.


I ended up doing two drawings.