Saddle Billed Stork
Watercolor, 31″ x 23″, on Legion Special Handmade, rough 300lb: $10,000
The Saddle-billed Stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis)
About Saddle Bills
A tall, lanky, black-and-white stork with a unique red, yellow, and black bill. The male has dark-brown eyes, and the female has yellow eyes. The slightly upturned bill can grow to 13″. In flight, the bird’s massive size, and the dark bands in the center of the white wings are diagnostic. Scarce but conspicuous; mostly resident but can be partially nomadic in parts of the range. Found singly or in pairs at rivers and large undisturbed wetlands, foraging for favorites like catfish, but it will also take frogs, birds, and insects.
About Saddle Bills around lake Naivasha
Lake Naivasha National Park is a haven for birders, that supports abundant birdlife. The park is dominated by papyrus swamps and acacia woodland and is home to grebes, cranes, herons, fish eagles, and storks of many species, including this resplendent saddle-billed female. located nearby the park which provides wonderful birding habitat. Lake Naivasha national park is located 13 kilometers away from Hell’s Gate National Park where birds like Bearded Vulture and Verreaux’s Eagle can be viewed around the towering cliffs.
Range Map of the Saddle Billed Stork
About the painting:
I love the dramatic primary coloration of the bill and “saddle” and the piecing yellow eyes of the female.
Started with two photos from renowned wildlife photographers Manoj Shah and Debi Dalio, comped together to add the sheen of Debi’s captured neck plumage to the regal pose of Manoj’s primary photo. I stripped out the background and played with various palettes before settling on the deep fern green, which I ended up painting in Gouache to achieve a flat matt look. The black parts were applied using a very loose wet-on-wet wash, charging Payne’s grey with Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue. The sheen was then added using Payne’s Grey and glazed with Prussian Blue and Viridian Green, while the white feathers were toned using Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, and a touch of Raw Umber. The Red of the bill was Deep Crimson with Alizarin Crimson shading, and the yellow was Chromium Yellow Bright, Hansa Yellow and a touch of Yellow Ochre, while the black of the bill was done using wet-on-wet and glazing, of a mix of Payne’s Grey, Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber for the base with some deliberate blooming, glazed over with Raw and Burnt Umber.