For the Losing Altitude collaborative book project: http://losingaltitude.deviantart.com Losing Altitude is a collaborative project working towards raising the awareness of endangered birds, many wonderful, bird-lovin' artists took part in the project. Everyone meet the Tricolored Blackbird, (Agelaius tricolor)! I was inspired to paint these birds due to a very similar species, the Red-Winged Blackbird. We have Red-Wings within my favorite nature paths, and I couldn't imagine a summer without their song. So this piece is dedicated to keeping the awareness of this species up, so that the song of the Tricolored Blackbirds stays strong. The status of these guys is Endangered, the main problem being habitat loss. There's a huge danger to these birds when they nest on agricultural lands, as the young are not old enough to leave the nest by the time harvesting comes around. But there's hope - Audubon California has a great project to help out these birds, which you can learn more about here: http://ca.audubon.org/55-birds-0

Again, thanks go to those who critiqued and helped me out on these bird illustrations! The main bulk of my work lately has been sculpture, and while it was wonderful to dive back into some colorful digital painting, I was definitely feeling some unworked art muscles but still wanted to give proper honor to these birds. Also a big thank you to all those who supported Losing Altitude. The Kickstarter went wonderfully, I've ordered a limited amount of copies, and I'm very excited to see the book in person!