Kiskadee Watercolor Painting

The large, yellow-breasted flycatcher, the Great Kiskadee is seen on tree limbs, electric wires and flying overhead throughout Bermuda. You hear its call, 'KISS-ka-DEE" from morning until night. In the very early morning I heard other birds - mourning doves, sparrows, cardinals, a parrot. But when the sun was high, the Kiskadees started. They drowned out the sound of the other birds. They drowned out the traffic. They drowned out the neighbors. I did not see them at the beach, so at least they did not drown out the ocean!
The flamboyant Kiskadees are native to southern Texas and Louisiana and further south to Argentina. Introduced from Trinidad in 1957 to control the Anolis lizard, they feel exceptionally at home in Bermuda. They did not control the lizard, although they do eat lizards along with seeds, fruit, small fish and mainly insects. Both males and females aggressively defend their nests from predators and competing birds.
The morning glories in this painting are the deeper blue flowers that I saw in Bermuda vining and twining along the roadsides on walls, fences, shrubs and trees. They make a nice contrast with the bright orange nasturtiums. I saw this Kiskadee in my Bermuda sister's garden where the morning glories and nasturtium were blooming so prettily.

This painting is #19 of a series of original Zeh paintings called the BERMUDA COLLECTION.