Artist's Note:

Of all the paintings I have done, I think this one has to be one of my favourites. I loved how it turned out, but more than that I loved the process of painting it. It is such a friendly looking bird that I found it to be a joy to work on. Granted beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and some people will find it offputting that it is a carrion bird in general, but I think this painting captures a cute little moment in the life of this bird. I also really like that I opted to go for large flat areas where it is in complete shade rather than add in a lot of what would likely have amounted to noise. I think it helps emphasise the fluffier parts of the bird.

The habitat of these birds is enormous, with them found from the southernmost tip of South America all the way to southern Canada. This space amounts to an estimated 28,000,000 km2 of space you can find them in. They are called Turkey Vultures because they look, well, a bit like Turkeys. They are large birds, with a wingspan of up to 1.83m and a bodyweight up to 2.41kg. They hang around in large groups like other vultures, although they will head off on their own for food in the daytime. They are quite fascinating creatures, but I mainly like them because of their daft little heads. For more info on them see here.