Another one from the archives... soft pastels on canvas board from 2012.
If you are walking along a warm, sunny sidewalk or golf course in Phoenix, and you happen to hear a soft, yet insistent Peeeep... Peeep... Peeeeeep!... look up. Most likely, you will see a small, brownish bird perched on a phone wire, a wall, a fencepost or a branch nearby, bobbing its long, narrow tail downward and twitching its head at you inquisitively. It might flutter up into the air and show off a few acrobatics as it catches flying insects in its thin little beak before descending gracefully back to its perch.
This is a Say’s Phoebe.
Sibley’s says the Say's Phoebe is one of the "Tyrant Flycatchers," which makes me picture it wielding a staff in one claw, shaking it menacingly and telling all the other birds what to do. But there doesn’t seem to be anything tyrannical about them. In fact, entire families hang out next to my office in busy Scottsdale, placidly feeding their babies and picnicking serenely. They don't seem to care one bit that they are surrounded by a vortex of noisy machinery, blaring loudspeakers and gunning engines. I guess there is peace to be found anywhere.
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