Two Lady Birds

First, I would like to introduce the newest member of my puppet collection: Julia the marionette.

Julia strikes a pose.

Though I decided Julia was a female bird (or hen I suppose?) in real life most female birds aren't anywhere near as colorful.  It's the males who are invested in putting on a show with long feathers and bright hues (remember that anytime a woman in media evokes a peacock fan.  Peahens are a little more conservative with the tail feathers and are usually brown and green.)

With my recent work on Dripbird, who is definitely male, I started wondering what the female bird of his (totally fictional) species would look like.  And thus I sat down and created Damselbird:

Damselbird, female counterpart of Dripbird

Besides the brown and green coloring (to camouflage against undergrowth) Damselbird has shorter tail feathers and crest feathers, as she would only be using them for communication and defensive postures rather than for showy mating displays.  Her wing feathers are the same length as Dripbird's because, though their species is mostly flightless, they use wings for extending jumps and balancing when running.  The female would need to be equally well equipped for jumping and running, and so the wings stay the same.

I would like to make a Damselbird in Maya in addition to Dripbird, which I don't think will be too hard.  I'd just make a duplicate file of Dripbird and do a pallet swap and a scale function on the feathers.  As for what I'd do with them?  Well, a cute short about Dripbird courtship wouldn't be out of the question (being cartoon birds, you know it'll be just a little sillier than what you've seen on Animal Planet).

Earworm of the Day: Your Love is a Song by Switchfoot