Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Pastel potloden op Saunders Waterford 300gsm 310×230 Cotton Satiné High White papier

During early spring I walked through the Hania polder in Dordrecht. Suddenly a bunch of birds settled in the yellowish reeds that had remained from last year. These were the first Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus) returning from their ‘winter vacation’ in the South.

One of the birds looked curious at me at a reasonable distance and I was able to quickly take a nice photo. It was a female specimen, with a brownish-yellow belly with brown stripes. The male was also nearby, But unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of him at the time, too far away or too much hidden in the reeds

Males are recognizably colored with their almost pitch-black head, throat and top of the chest and a white ‘scarf’ and a pale brown back with black stripes. The dirty white underside has a light grey striped tailbone. The tail is brownish-black with white, and the underside of the tail is gray.

At home I thought the reed bunting would be a very nice bird to paint, between the reeds. But not only the female, but as a couple. Because I didn’t have my own photo of a male at the time, I looked for it on Pixabay and made a nice composition of the two photos.

Later in the spring (I had already finished this painting by then) I saw the male reed bunting several times while he was singing his metallic tones, usually at the end of a reed stalk or in the top of bushes and small trees. I was able take nice photos of the male as well. I will later post the photos of both the female and the male on my blogsite (Natuurfoto’s).

📸 ♀ by me, ♂ by Peter van Kasteren (Pixabay).

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