Colorful Chirpers

Green-tailed Towhees are large long-tailed sparrows. Spending most of their time under the cover of dense shrubbery, they are more often heard than seen. They make strange catlike mews and noisily thrash leaf litter around looking for food.

Towhees forage on the ground with a quick backward two-footed hop known as "double scratching." They are also said to run like rodents. I think this one looks more like a roadrunner than a mouse.

The scientific name, Pipilo chlorurus, means "colorful chirper." Hiding under bushes, they look drab grey or brown. But their colors become more obvious when they venture out into the sunlight. Field marks are: rufous cap, white throat, black mustache, grey chest and olive-green upperparts.

The books don't mention blue, but I noticed some.

This towhee didn't have a rusty colored cap.

Apparently, their head feathers can move from flat to puffed.

Sometimes they stop their fast foraging to stretch their necks up for a moment.

I don't understand all of their quirky behaviors, but they are fun to watch.
The most towhees I've seen at one time is four. Did you know that the collective name for a group of towhees is a "tangle" or a "teapot?" The group name for sparrows is "host," "quarrel" or "ubiquity."

Color Them Happy

These backyard birds have a new feeder.

The old feeder, even without the hopper, seemed too small to accommodate doves comfortably.
So, I built a platform feeder from scraps of wood and screen. I'm no carpenter, and it looks pretty crude...but it works! I am thrilled that the birds appear to get along with each other and dine in peace and harmony.
In the three weeks the new feeder has been up we've only noticed four species of birds using it: Mourning Doves, White-winged Doves, House Finches and House Sparrows. All very common for this area, but after sampling their colors with Photoshop's eyedropper tool, I see these "ordinary" birds in a new light.

Here are just a few of the colors lifted from the Mourning Dove:
A Baby House Finch:
Adult Male House Finch:

House Sparrow:

Male and Female Lesser Goldfinches:
Our little goldfinches have a new feeder too. We noticed that sometimes the cloth thistle seed sock gets holes in it and the seeds spill out. Now we have a plastic tube feeder up too, so the finches have seeds available while the sock is being mended.

Thank you for letting me share these little backyard wonders of nature with you.

Classical Art Color Match

Have you ever wondered what some of your travel photos or favorite portraits would look like colored with the palette of famous paintings?

I learned about this cool photo editing technique to change the color scheme of photos from unfocusedbrain.com.

The process is simple. Load your original photo and artwork reference image into Photoshop*, then use "Match Color" under image adjustments. The artist's color palette is instantly applied to the photo and then you get to tweak 'Luminance' and 'Color Intensity.'

These are some of the results after playing around with this technique for a couple of weeks. Not all photos and paintings "work" together. This project takes a lot of experimenting, but it is fun! And, there is a practical side to playing around like this. If you want to make a painting, it could be helpful to do explorations on the computer first before committing to expensive art materials.

In these examples I used famous paintings of the masters, but the colors from any photo can be used. That opens up a lot of creative possibilities.

Sunflowers with color palette of Claude Monet's Poplars on the Bents of the Epte 1891

Creek with color palette of Paul Cezanne's View of l'Estaque and the Château d'If 1885

Tree with color palette of Raphael's School of Athens 1510

Bunny with color palette of Raphael's School of Athens 1510

Canyon Rock Face with color palette of Albrect Durer's Self-Portrait 1500

Gary's Visitor with color palette of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks 1942

Track with color palette of Paul Gauguin's Woman Holding a Fruit 1893

Track with color palette of Andre Derain's Boats in Port of Collioure 1905

Cat with color palette of Pablo Picasso's The Weeping Woman 1937

Cat with color palette of Vincent Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night 1888

Bench with color palette of Paul Cezanne's View of l'Estaque and the Château d'If 1885

Bench with color palette of Vincent Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night 1888

Click on any photo to see it larger.

*I used Photoshop CS2, but there might be some free web-based programs that can do this technique.
An article at makeuseof.com explains how to color your pictures like famous paintings with FlauntR.