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Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

Ken Gilliland

Dances with Bees
HW3D Exclusive Artist
I did feel it (the wind) yesterday (on my barefeet and legs) when a Cooper Hawk tried to snatch our pet pigeon who was under our covered front porch with us. A very gutsy move from a very hungry hawk... I guess front porch walkabouts are off limits from now on to the pigeon.
 

Carey

Extraordinary
I did feel it (the wind) yesterday (on my barefeet and legs) when a Cooper Hawk tried to snatch our pet pigeon who was under our covered front porch with us. A very gutsy move from a very hungry hawk... I guess front porch walkabouts are off limits from now on to the pigeon.
Our cockatoo's have a play yard and something like that happens, Now I just caught it out of the corner of my eye, but I clearly heard Casper scream, "shooo!" and I can start to breathe again.....Now I know it might not have been exactly sane, but as that hawk flew away I was laughing....
 

Stezza

Dances with Bees
Australian Gosh Hawks are notorious for plucking pigeons straight out of the fanciers hand... they have no qualms in getting through pigeon holes to get into the loft and feast.. problem is they can't work out how to get back out.

The worst I ever had was when a goshie was chasing my babies ( about 70 youngens ) off the ground to be then attacked by a peregrine... when they finally would land from the peregrine attack the goshie was back into them and so the cycle went on for several hours..
 

Carey

Extraordinary
Australian Gosh Hawks are notorious for plucking pigeons straight out of the fanciers hand... they have no qualms in getting through pigeon holes to get into the loft and feast.. problem is they can't work out how to get back out.

The worst I ever had was when a goshie was chasing my babies ( about 70 youngens ) off the ground to be then attacked by a peregrine... when they finally would land from the peregrine attack the goshie was back into them and so the cycle went on for several hours..
Boy, am I glad I only have to deal with Michigan Hawks... I would hate to think of a red tail hawk dressing up as a salesman to get entry to my house...lol
 

Rowan54

Dragon Queen
Contributing Artist
I felt wind off of a hawk's wings once. I was standing in the orchard helping my father with something. Suddenly, a bird about the size of a robin went past the side of my head at light speed, moving my hair. It'd turned sideways to go past my head and went back to level flight right in front of my nose. My father was standing there laughing and told me it was a sparrow hawk.

Fortunately, I've never seen a red-tail that close up, though we have them in this area. Along with peregrine falcons, Cooper's hawks, and three sizes of owls. (I got really good at identifying predators, both winged and four-footed, when I had chickens. Everything likes chicken.)
 

Lyne

Distinguished
HW Honey Bear
@Rowan54 what a fun story! I was feeding the squirrels and birds one day at our local park, when a red tailed hawk swooshed right by my head and flew UP-ward fast (or would have run into a bank of bushes that the critters dashed back into)....I'm sure the hawk was disappointed.... but that was my "close encounter"! :)
 

Ken Gilliland

Dances with Bees
HW3D Exclusive Artist
PR_Nightjar.jpg


I'm spending some time this week doing something I rarely find time to do anymore... have some fun rendering something other than product shots. Here, I'm playing with one of my favorite sets, "Frogmouths, Nightjars & Goatsuckers". These birds sleep during the day, camouflaging themselves as "tree" branches during the day.

The Puerto Rican Nightjar is endemic to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It is an endangered species and roughly there were 1,400 to 2,000 adult individuals (before Hurricane Maria). Habitat destruction, feral house cats and introduced mongoose populations are the leading causes for their endangerment.

It eats nocturnal insects, including beetles, moths and other flying insects. They forage by making fly-catching sallies from perches and hunt beneath tree canopies. Smaller prey items are probably consumed in flight, but larger insects are carried in the bill back to perch, where they are shaken and swallowed. It is typically found in semi-deciduous forest with hardwood trees and little or no ground vegetation, usually on dry, limestone soils.

The moth shown is Mariamne's Giant Flag Moth native to eastern Mexico to Panama.

Rendered in Firefly without no postwork. Products include Dinoraul's Trees 201204 and 201206, Songbird ReMix Frogmouths, Nightjars & Goatsuckers and Nature's Wonders Giant Moths and Moths of the World v3 by me.
 

Ken Gilliland

Dances with Bees
HW3D Exclusive Artist
I've been slowly rebuilding/remodeling my bird library to support Iray (with a standalone DS version) and SF for my Audubon event. Occasionally, I'll be throwing out a test render that turned out well enough to share, and this is one of those examples...

Bonaparte's Nightjar-IRAY.jpg


Bonaparte's Nightjar occurs on Sumatra, Belitung Island and Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia, Brunei, and Sabah and Sarawak (Borneo), Malaysia, where it is locally common, but rarely recorded. Nightjars sleep during the day, pretending to be broken branches on tree limbs and snags.

It is considered "vulnerable" to extinction with it's 15,000-30,000 adult individuals on an ever decreasing population trend. It is a lower elevation specialist and the rates of forest loss in the Sundaic lowlands have been extremely rapid (Kalimantan lost nearly 25% of its evergreen forest during 1985-1997, and Sumatra lost almost 30% of its 1985 cover). The habitat loss has been due to the escalation of logging and land conversion, with deliberate targeting of all remaining stands of valuable timber including those inside protected areas.

Rendered in Iray without postwork. Models include: DinoRaul's "Trees201206" (with my bark texture) and my Nightjar from Songbird ReMix Frogmouths, Nightjars & Goatsuckers.
 
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JOdel

Dances with Bees
HW Honey Bear
Thanks for the heads up on the moths. I can't remember whether I've already downloaded them or not.
 

Ken Gilliland

Dances with Bees
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Thanks Chris. It always means a lot coming from you

Kinda off topic, I guess, but any chance of you doing snakes anytime in the future, Ken?

I created the Nature's Wonders "Reptile" folder with the intention of creating more reptiles... and snakes are an obvious choice, despite my aversion to them (I've been bitten by a rattler).

I'm obviously in bird node now, and I have a couple new bird sets I want to do, but that doesn't mean the Nature's Wonders product will be silent this year.
 
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